Coping and Conformity Motives as Indirect Links Between Social Interaction Anxiety, Fear of Being Scrutinized, and Hazardous Cannabis Use

Jordan Ortman, MS
University of Central Florida

Co-authors: Amie R. Newins, University of Central Florida

Background: Social anxiety is associated with elevated risk for hazardous cannabis use, and cannabis motives may help explain this association. Coping motives, or using cannabis to manage negative affect, may be especially relevant for students with elevated social anxiety. Conformity motives may also be relevant because cannabis may be used to manage interpersonal pressure or negative evaluation concerns. Less is known about whether these motives explain hazardous cannabis use similarly across two types of social fears – social interaction anxiety and fear of being scrutinized.

Objective(s): This study examined whether cannabis coping and conformity motives accounted for indirect associations between social interaction anxiety, fear of being scrutinized, and hazardous cannabis use, and whether these indirect effects differed across social anxiety dimensions.

Methods: Participants were 168 college students who reported cannabis use in the past 6 months (53.2% White; 65.9% female). They completed self-report measures of two types of social fears (Social Interaction Anxiety Scale [SIAS] and Social Phobia Scale [SPS]), cannabis motives (Marijuana Motives Questionnaire), and hazardous cannabis use (Cannabis Use Disorders Identification Test-Revised [CUDIT-R]). Path models were estimated in Mplus.

Results: When examined in separate models, SIAS and SPS were both positively associated with coping and conformity motives. Coping motives were positively associated with CUDIT-R scores in both models (SIAS: B = 4.326, p < .001; SPS: B = 4.295, p < .001), whereas conformity motives were not. Indirect effects through coping motives were significant for SIAS (B = 0.063, 95% CI [0.022, 0.109], p = .004) and SPS (B = 0.051, 95% CI [0.016, 0.089], p = .006) scores. Indirect effects through conformity motives were not significant. In the simultaneous model, coping motives remained positively associated with CUDIT-R scores (B = 4.306, p < .001), but SIAS and SPS scores were not associated with either type of motive or CUDIT-R scores. Indirect effect of SIAS and SPS scores on CUDIT-R were not significant and did not differ in magnitude. The simultaneous model explained 40.2% of variance in CUDIT-R scores.

Conclusions: Coping motives appear to be more important than conformity motives in accounting for associations between social anxiety and hazardous cannabis use. Different types of social fears did not seem to lead to differences in hazardous cannabis use, suggesting that multiple forms of social anxiety may increase risk of hazardous cannabis use. Interventions may benefit from targeting coping-motivated cannabis use and skills for managing negative affect without cannabis.