Associations between Marijuana Usage and Depression Among Black Male Collegians

Background

Researchers have projected that the prevalence of depression will increase over the next few years. There is mounting evidence that marijuana usage can exacerbate depressive symptoms. These findings are supported by studies that show marijuana usage increases the risk of developing mental health disorders, specifically depression. Current studies and reports have raised public awareness of the risk of high marijuana consumption among college students. College students use marijuana to manage daily stressors and mental health challenges.

One study suggested that marijuana use among Black male collegians was significantly higher than their female peers. This is of great concern as untreated mental health issues in Black male students contribute to higher risks of substance misuse. In addition to mental health concerns, Black males who use marijuana are at risk of poorer academic performance. Knowledge of the impact of marijuana usage on the mental health and educational outcomes of Black male collegians has great importance for scholars and practitioners. This present study seeks to answer what associations exist between marijuana usage and depression symptomology among Black male collegians.

Methods

This study used the 2020 National Survey on Drug Abuse and Health dataset. The survey quantifies drug and alcohol use, psychological concerns, and mental health care. Our sample was restricted to only Black men currently enrolled in college (N=887). While the independent variable for this study is marijuana consumption (e.g., have you ever used marijuana?), the dependent variables were different symptoms of depression (e.g. several days or longer of feeling sad, several days or longer feeling discouraged about life and loss of pleasure). We also controlled for religiosity (e.g. saliency of religious beliefs), family income, and urbancity (e.g. urban or rural areas).

Results

Of the 877 Black male collegians, 36% reported having ever smoke marijuana, while 28% reported having felt sad, empty or depressed, 6% reported feeling discouraged about life, and 2% reported loss of interest in things once enjoyed.

There was a statistically significant relationship between having ever used marijuana and feelings of sadness, emptiness, depression, controlling for religion, income, and urbanicity. Specifically, having ever used marijuana had a 1.648 increase in the odds of reporting these negative feelings (p<0.001). There were similar findings with reported feeling discouraged about life, using the same controls. Having ever used marijuana was associated with a marginally significant 1.642 increase in the odds of feelings of discouragement (p: 0.056). There was no significant association between marijuana use and losing interest in activities.

Conclusions and Implications

The purpose of this study was to raise awareness of marijuana usage among Black male collegians and its associations with depression. Black men face many barriers to student success, and colleges and universities struggle to support them. There is a need to develop culturally-informed interventions on college campuses to increase mental health and educational outcomes of Black males. Further research should aim to identify the temporal order in regard to marijuana usage and depression symptomology.