How is Anxiety Involved in the Links Between Cannabis Variables and Psychotic-Like Experiences in Emerging Adults? Investigating Two Potential Mediation Models in a Multi-Site University Sample

Abstract

Many Canadian emerging adult postsecondary students use cannabis, a known risk factor for developing psychotic-like experiences (PLEs). Anxiety has been independently linked to both cannabis use and PLEs and may partially explain the links between cannabis variables and PLEs. Study 1 of this thesis investigated and provided support for anxiety as a mediator of the link between cannabis use frequency and PLEs. Study 2 identified anxiety and cannabis coping-with-anxiety motives as sequential mediators of the link between PLEs and cannabis-related problems. Neither study supported moderation by biological sex, suggesting that anxiety explains the cannabis-to-PLEs trajectory; and anxiety and cannabis coping-with-anxiety motives explain the link between PLEs and cannabis-related problems for Canadian undergraduates regardless of sex. Anxiety and related anxiety-specific coping motives appear to be important targets of preventative and/or therapeutic interventions aimed at reducing emerging adult cannabis users’ risks for mental health- and cannabis-related problems, including PLEs.