Project Name: Project MID
Principal Investigator: Jason Ramirez, PhD
Grant Title: Cannabis Identity as a Cognitive Behavior Risk Factor for Young Adult Cannabis Misuse
Sponsor: National Institute on Drug Abuse
Project Period: 04/20/2018 – 04/19/2020
Grant Number: R21DA045092
Project Coordinator: Elliot Wallace
Cannabis misuse is associated with numerous negative consequences and is a growing public health concern given increases in misuse in the past decade. Recent theoretical models assert that substance identity, or the extent to which one views substance use as part of their self-concept, is a unique and important cognitive risk factor for substance misuse. Substance-related identities can be measured with explicit (e.g., self-report) and implicit (e.g., reaction time) measures; and both uniquely predict substance misuse. To date, research on cannabis identity is limited as reliable implicit measures have yet to be developed and explicit measures require validation as unique predictors of cannabis misuse. The proposed research aims to address these gaps and has two phases: Phase 1) 30 young adults in Washington that regularly use cannabis will attend focus groups to discuss identification with cannabis. Themes from focus groups will be disseminated as a qualitative manuscript and will inform stimuli development for two novel Cannabis Identity Implicit Associations Tests (CI-IATs) to assess implicit cannabis identity. Phase 2) 120 young adults will complete two online assessment batteries separated by three months that include the CI-IATs, an explicit measure of cannabis identity, and self-reported cannabis use, misuse, and descriptive norms of cannabis use. A subset of 60 participants will complete a third assessment to examine the test-retest reliability of implicit and explicit cannabis identity measures. Implicit and explicit measures of cannabis identity will be examined as unique predictors of current and prospective cannabis misuse. The ultimate goals of this application are to establish whether cannabis identity is a unique cognitive risk factor for cannabis misuse, to advance theory, and to provide pilot data for a future R01 proposal to examine longitudinal relationships between cannabis identity and cannabis misuse among young adults.