Examining the Relationship Between Marijuana Use and Abusive and Neglectful Parenting: Lessons for Marijuana Legalization

Background and Purpose. The legalization of marijuana, for recreational or medical use, has received increasing public attention as more states pass legislation allowing its use. The effects of changing legislation on problems are largely unknown. This is especially true for child maltreatment as studies on how marijuana use specifically affects abusive and neglectful parenting are rare despite the fact that marijuana is the most widely used illicit drug. Marijuana use may be attractive for or even preferable to individuals who self-medicate for mental health problems compared to other psychotropic drugs or seen as less harmful than using alcohol or other illicit drugs for recreation.  Ultimately understanding the role of marijuana in abusive and neglectful parent is important to assess, prevent, and intervene to reduce problems for children and provide guidance on possible consequences of marijuana use on parenting. The current study examines whether and how current marijuana use is related to committing child physical abuse, corporal punishment, supervisory neglect, or physical neglect. 

Methods. Data were collected via a telephone survey from parents of children aged 12 or younger in 50 cities in California resulting in 3,023 respondents.  Both frequency of child physical abuse and corporal punishment were measured using the Conflict Tactics Scale, Parent Child version.  Supervisory and physical neglect were dichotomous measures constructed from questions on the Multidimensional Neglectful Behavior Scale. The primary independent variable was use of marijuana in the past year. Additional data on sociodemographic and psychosocial characteristics (e.g., impulsivity) were used as control variables. Negative binomial models with random effects (to address issues of clustering within cities) were used to analyze for physical abuse and corporal punishment. Random effect logit models were used to analyze physical and supervisory neglect.

Results. Major findings related to marijuana use: (1) parents who reported that they were current marijuana users used physical abuse and corporal punishment more frequently; (2) current marijuana use was not related to supervisory neglect; and (3) current marijuana use was negatively related to physical neglect.

Conclusions and Implications.  The positive relationship between marijuana use and abusive parenting may suggest that highly agitated and impulsive parents may use marijuana to relax, possibly after engaging in abusive parenting.  Although marijuana use is known to increase relaxation and impair attention span and short term memory, current marijuana use was not related to inability to adequately supervise children. With regards to physical neglect, current use of marijuana does not appear occur at the expense of caring for their child’s basic needs. Having a medical marijuana recommendation or living in state where marijuana is legal does not mean that child welfare workers should no longer screen for marijuana use. In fact, legalization of marijuana may result in higher rates of physical abuse in the general population. Thus screening for current marijuana use may indicate further intervention is warranted.