Bradley Conner’s research while affiliated with Colorado State University and other places

Physical activity (PA) positively impacts mental health by reducing psychological distress (PD), while cannabis use can increase PD. This study investigates the moderating effect of physical activity (PA) on the relationship between the frequency of past 90-day cannabis use (CU) and psychological distress (PD) among college students, using data from the American College Health Association’s National College Health Assessment III surveys (2019–2023). We explored the following research questions: (1) Does PA moderate the relationship between CU and PD? (2) How do different levels of PA influence PD and CU? The Kessler Psychological Distress Scale (K6) measured PD, and CU was categorized as never, once-monthly, and weekly-daily. Three PA measures (hours of moderate and vigorous activity, and days of strength training) were used in a Two-Step Cluster analysis to group participants by PA level. The study included 157,880 students from 127 universities, predominantly aged 18–29, biologically female, and non-Hispanic white. CU frequency was linked to increased PD, but higher PA levels were associated with lower PD. The interaction between PA and CU was significant, indicating PA moderates CU’s impact on PD. The study’s findings suggest that PA may serve as a protective factor against PD associated with CU. Public health strategies could incorporate PA as a harms reduction approach for cannabis users, particularly targeting college students who may be at high risk for PD. Future research should further explore the mechanisms underlying the moderating effect of physical activity and expand these findings to more diverse populations.

Current two-step measures of gender identity do not prescribe methods for using expanded responses (e.g., multiple selections) among sexual and gender minority people, though they want the opportunity to provide these responses. To increase statistical power using expanded gender identity responses, we created an automated algorithm to generate analyzable categories. Participants’ expanded gender identity responses and sex assigned at birth were used to create five categories (i.e., cisgender men, cisgender women, gender expansive individuals, transgender men, and transgender women) from a cohort of sexual and gender minority people (N = 6,312, 53% cisgender individuals). Data were collected from June 2020 to June 2021. Chi-square tests were performed to assess the association between the algorithm-generated and participant-selected gender categories and to identify demographic differences between participants in the algorithm-generated categories. Forty-six percent of our sample may have been classified into an “other” category without an algorithm due to writing their own response (5.7%), selecting “another gender identity” (5.7%), or selecting multiple (42.6%) or less commonly described (10.2%) gender identities. There was a relationship between the categories formed by our algorithm and participants’ single category selection, χ²(20) = 19,000, p < .001. Concordance rates were high (97%–99%) among all groups except for participants classified as gender expansive (74.3%). Without an algorithm to incorporate expanded gender identity responses, almost half of the sample may have been classified into an “other” category or dropped from analyses. Our algorithm successfully classified participants into analyzable categories from expanded gender responses.

Operant conditioning and social learning theories suggest that positive cannabis use-related outcomes are a primary contributor to maintained use and risk for dependence. However, there currently does not exist a reliable, validated measure of positive cannabis-related outcomes. The present study sought to develop and psychometrically evaluate the Positive Outcomes of Cannabis Use Scale (POCUS). We collected three samples, college students (N=883), community adults (N=214), and college students (N=615), of predominantly White adults in the United States who completed an online survey. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses evaluated scale structure and identified four factors: Social Enhancement, Mood Enhancement, Cognitive Enhancement, and Sexual Enhancement. Positive outcomes were positively associated with recent use, controlling for expectancies and negative outcomes. Positive outcomes were also differentiated from positive expectancies and more influential in predicting typical use frequency. Findings indicate that the POCUS is psychometrically sound and clinically useful for measuring positive cannabis use-related outcomes among predominantly White adults in the United States.

Background: Understanding, predicting, and reducing the harms associated with cannabis use is an important field of study. Timing (i.e., hour of day and day of week) of substance use is an established risk factor of severity of dependence. However, there has been little attention paid to morning use of cannabis and its associations with negative consequences. Objectives: The goal of the present study was to examine whether distinct classifications of cannabis use habits exist based on timing, and whether these classifications differ on cannabis use indicators, motives for using cannabis, use of protective behavioral strategies, and cannabis-related negative outcomes. Methods: Latent class analyses were conducted on four independent samples of college student cannabis users (Project MOST 1, N=2,056; Project MOST 2, N=1846; Project PSST, N=1,971; Project CABS, N=1,122). Results: Results determined that a 5-class solution best fit the data within each independent sample consisting of the classes: (1) "Daily-morning use",(2) "Daily-non-morning use", (3) "Weekend-morning use", (4) "Weekend-night use", and (5) "Weekend-evening use." Classes endorsing daily and/or morning use reported greater use, negative consequences and motives, while those endorsing weekend and/or non-morning use reported the most adaptive outcomes (i.e., reduced frequency/quantity of use, fewer consequences experienced, and fewer cannabis use disorder symptoms endorsed). Conclusions: Recreational daily use as well as morning use may be associated with greater negative consequences, and there is evidence that most college students who use cannabis do avoid these types of use. The results of the present study offer evidence that timing of cannabis use may be a pertinent factor in determining harms associated with use.

Cannabis use frequency among adolescents is associated with negative outcomes. Two variables associated with cannabis use frequency are method of acquisition and accessibility of cannabis. Prior research on the relation between methods of acquisition and cannabis use frequency is sparse. Differences in cannabis use in states in which the sale of recreational cannabis is legal (recreational states) compared to states in which it is not warrants research on how adolescents acquire cannabis in recreational states, and how easy it is for them to do so. The primary way in which adolescents acquire cannabis and the ease by which they can acquire cannabis may be associated with cannabis use frequency via specific interactions. We hypothesized that primarily acquiring cannabis from a store would be positively associated with cannabis use frequency when compared to other primary methods of acquisition, and that accessibility would meditate relations between primary method of acquisition and cannabis use frequency. This study used data from high school students who completed the 2019 Healthy Kids Colorado Survey (HKCS) who reported using cannabis in the past 30 days. Results indicated that primary method of acquisition was significantly differentially associated with 30-day cannabis use frequency, with participants who reported buying cannabis at a store reporting significantly higher 30-day cannabis use frequency than any other method of acquisition. Ease of accessibility was not significantly associated with 30-day cannabis use frequency and did not significantly mediate the relation between primary method of acquisition and 30-day cannabis use frequency. Results of the current study indicate that the ways in which adolescents acquire cannabis are associated with how often they use it. Further, the positive relation between primarily acquiring cannabis at stores and frequency of use provide evidence that access to stores may be a risk factor for cannabis use frequency among adolescents.

Intro: Recently, the National Institutes of Health published a notice of information regarding the establishment of a standard unit of Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) to be used in research. To address this notice, the current study examined if associations would differ when using standard dose as a measure of cannabis use compared to cannabis use frequency. We hypothesized that there would be a positive significant relation between cannabis use motives and cannabis-related consequences. We also hypothesized a significant positive relation between motives and cannabis use as measured by standard dose. Finally, we hypothesized that the positive relation between motives and cannabis-related consequences would be partially mediated by cannabis use as measured by standard dose but not cannabis use frequency. Method: We conducted five path analyses to test study hypotheses in a sample of individuals (n=84) who reported regular to heavy cannabis use. Results: Coping motives significantly positively predicted cannabis-related consequences (b=0.376, SE=0.136, p=0.006), such that a one-unit increase in coping motives was expected to increase cannabis-related consequences by a factor of 1.45 (45%). Number of standard doses significantly positively predicted cannabis-related consequences (b=0.24, SE=0.122, p=0.046) such that a one-unit increase in number of standard doses was expected to increase cannabis-related negative consequences by a factor of 1.27. (27%). In the social motives model, social motives significantly positively predicted cannabis-related negative consequences (b =.358, SE=.133, p=.007) such that a one-unit increase in social motives was expected to increase cannabis related consequences by a factor of 1.43 (43%). Also, social motives significantly positively predicted number of standard doses (b=0.3, SE=0.097, p=0.002) such that a one-unit increase in sense social motives was expected to increase the number of standard doses by a factor of 1.349 (35%). Enhancement motives significantly positively predicted cannabis-related consequences (b=0.406, SE=0.161, p=0.012) and number of standard doses consumed (b=0.2, SE=0.1, p=0.014). Further, IRRs revealed that one unit increases in number of standard doses ingested predicted larger increases in cannabis-related negative consequences than did one unit increases in cannabis use frequency across all models with significant results. All indirect effects were not significant. Discussion: Previous research has reported mixed findings on the relations between cannabis use and motives and cannabis use and consequences. This is likely due to how cannabis was being measured, by frequency. Our results suggest that relations between cannabis use frequency or standard doses have with motives and cannabis-related consequences differ in significant ways and that, when measured in standard dose or cannabis use frequency, cannabis use is not a significant mediator of the relation between motives and consequences.

Cannabis is the most commonly used substance that remains federally illegal in the United States. With its rising legality in many states across the nation, it is important to understand the influence that cannabis can have on a user's physical and mental well-being. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2022), suicide is among the top nine leading causes of death in the United States for individuals aged 10 to 64. Research suggests that individuals diagnosed with depression who experience suicidal ideation, plans, and attempts is positively correlated with both daily cannabis use and non-daily cannabis use and that this correlation is more significant in women than in men (Han et al., 2021). This study seeks to generalize this finding by investigating both the prevalence and intensity of 30-day cannabis use amongst individuals who endorse suicidal thoughts in the last 12 months and the moderating effect of gender identity on the relationship between 30-day cannabis use and suicidal thoughts in the last 12 months. This study will utilize a sample of college students who completed the American College Health Association-National College Health Assessment Survey sometime between the Fall academic semester of 2019 to the Spring academic semester of 2021. The survey was completed on campuses across the United States with data collected on students’ health habits, behaviors, and perceptions. This data set consists of 198,848 participants aged 18 to 98 years of age (MAge = 23.16), with 66.27% of participants identifying as cisgender women and 30.83% identified as cisgender men. Within the dataset, 40.30% of participants endorsed thinking about or planning suicide in the last 12 months and 19.34% of participants reported using cannabis in the last 30 days. We anticipate that individuals who reported cannabis use in the last 30 days will show an increase in suicidal ideation in the last 12 months compared to individuals who reported never using cannabis. Similarly, we anticipate that gender identity will moderate and strengthen the relation between cannabis use and suicidal ideation in such that individual who identify as women will have a stronger and more significant correlation between cannabis use and suicidal ideations compared to individuals who identify as men. If these results are supported, future research will be warranted to further investigate how the nuanced interaction between gender identity and cannabis use increases our understanding of the upward trend in suicidality among individuals with and without mental health diagnoses.

Negative consequences associated with excessive use of cannabis are well documented. Previous findings indicate timing of use is an important factor when assessing severity of dependence for use of substances including alcohol and cigarettes. However, little attention in the academic literature has been paid to timing of cannabis use and its associations with negative consequences. The present study employed a latent class analysis on data collected from college students who use cannabis, located across four U.S. universities in four different states (N = 1,122). The goal was to examine whether distinct classifications of cannabis use exist based on timing (i.e., hour of day and day of week), and whether these classifications differ on cannabis use indicators (Marijuana Use Grid; MUG), cannabis-related negative consequences (Marijuana Consequences Questionnaire; MACQ), and cannabis use disorder symptoms (Cannabis Use Disorder Identification Test-Revised; CUDIT-R). The MUG assesses the amount (in grams) of cannabis used during a week of typical marijuana use in the past 30 days on each of the seven days per week (Monday-Sunday) during each of six 4-hour time periods (12a-4a, 4a-8a, 8a-12p, 12p-4p, 4p-8p, 8p-12p). By summing across time periods for each day, we binarized the presence of cannabis use (0 = no use, 1 = use) for each day of the week. By summing across days for each time period, we binarized the presence of cannabis use for each time period. Based on the Lo-Mendell-Rubin Likelihood Ratio Test (LRT) and other fit indices, we found support for a 4-class solution with high classification precision (relative entropy = .905). The four classes were characterized as follows: (1) daily (greater than 98% of the class endorsed use on each day of the week), common morning use (N = 140.17, 12.5%), (2) daily (greater than 88% of the class endorsed use each day of the week), uncommon morning use (N = 241.02, 21.5%), (3) weekend, common morning use (N = 72.22, 6.4%), and (4) weekend, uncommon morning use (N = 668.59, 59.6%). Individuals reporting daily, common morning use experienced the highest cannabis-related negative consequences (MACQ M = 7.53) and reported the highest levels of cannabis use disorder symptoms (CUDIT-R M = 15.74), whereas individuals reporting weekend, uncommon morning use experienced few cannabis-related negative consequences (MACQ M = 2.24)) and reported low cannabis use disorder symptoms (CUDIT-R M = 5.45). Taken together, our classes were defined by crossing the presence/absence of morning cannabis use by the presence/absence of weekday cannabis use, and we found evidence that both the timing of week and timing of day contribute to the level of cannabis-related harms that individuals experience. Additional research is needed to explore the unique contributions of time of week and time of day while controlling for other characteristics of one’s cannabis use (i.e., frequency, quantity, product type, route of administration, etc.).