Marijuana Use Among Child Welfare Involved Youth: An Examination of Risk and Protective Factors

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE:  In the United States, marijuana is the most popular illegal substance youth consume (Johnston et al., 2015; NIDA, 2016). Child welfare involved-youth have even higher rates of marijuana use than the general population (Thompson & Auslander, 2007; Traube et al., 2012). Unfortunately, marijuana use among youth has been linked to several long-term deleterious effects including psychosis (Di Forti et al., 2014), anxiety (Degenhardt et al., 2012), dependence (Chen et al., 2005), and reductions in memory, thinking, and the ability to acquire knowledge (NIDA, 2016). The purpose of this study is to increase the knowledge base regarding risk and protective factors associated with marijuana use among child welfare-involved youth.

Applying a strain theory framework (Agnew, 2006), we will control for characteristics that have been associated with an increased risk of substance use, including being male (Aarons et al., 2008), White (Kilpatrick et al., 2000), older (Wall & Kohl, 2007), runaway (Snyder et al., 2016), or having deviant peers (Thompson & Auslander, 2007; Traube et al., 2012). Future expectations (Sutherland & Shepherd, 2001) and school engagement (Yibling et al., 2011) have been found to protect against substance use.

METHODS: Our sample was drawn from a subsample of 1,054 participants (11-17 years old) from Wave I (October 2008-September 2009) of the second National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being (NSCAW II). The dependent variable was lifetime marijuana use (yes=1). Covariates included age, sex (Male =1), race (White =1), out-of-home care (yes =1), parental substance abuse (yes=1), recent history of parental arrest or detention in jail or prison (yes=1), deviant peer affiliation (sum of 6 items measuring the number of deviant peers; ranges from 6=none to 30=all), ADHD/ADD (yes=1), ran away during past six months (yes=1), future expectations (averages 6 items ranging from 1=none to 5=it will happen to assess youths positive expectations for the future, such as, chances they will live to 35, graduate high school, or have a good job; AddHealth, n.d.), and school engagement (i.e., students’ emotional, behavioral, and academic engagement in school; Furlong & Christenson, 2008). Stata 14.1 was used for analyses. We used logistic to model the dichotomous outcome variable, lifetime marijuana use.

RESULTS:  Findings indicate that child welfare-involved runaways had nearly triple the odds of marijuana use (OR = 2.74, p< .05), even after controlling for other risk and protective factors. The study also found that each unit increase in age (OR = 1.63, p< .001), living in out-of-home care (OR = 2.40, p< .05), and to a lesser degree having deviant peer affiliations (OR=1.15, p< .001) increases the odds of marijuana use. School engagement protected against marijuana use (OR = 0.88, p< .05), but future expectations did not.

IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE: Study results highlight the risks for child welfare involved youth who have runaway or are placed in out-of-home care. Effective interventions are needed to address marijuana use among youth with these risk factors.