Diverse patterns of life-course marijuana use may have differential health impacts for the children of users. Data are drawn from an intergenerational study of 426 families that included a parent, their oldest biological child, and (where appropriate) another caregiver who were interviewed 10 times from 2002 to 2018; the current study used data from 380 families in waves 6–10. Analyses linked parent marijuana use trajectories estimated in a previous publication (Epstein et al., 2015) to child marijuana, alcohol, and nicotine use; promarijuana norms; internalizing; externalizing; attention problems; and grades using multilevel modeling among children ages 6 to 21. Four trajectories had been found in the previous study: nonuser, chronic, adolescent-limited, and late-onset. Results indicate that children of parents in the groups that initiated marijuana use in adolescence (chronic and adolescent-limited) were most likely to use substances. Children of parents in the late-onset group, where parents initiated use in young adulthood, were not at increased risk for substance use but were more likely to have attention problems and lower grades. Results held when parent current marijuana use was added to the models. Implications of this work highlight the importance of considering both current use and use history in intergenerational transmission of marijuana use, and the need to address parent use history in family based prevention. Prevention of adolescent marijuana use remains a priority.

The relationship between age of sexual initiation and substance use was largely explained by consequences of sexual behavior. Earlier sexual initiation was linked to poorer physical health outcomes, though the nature of the association remains unclear. Public Health Implications. Prevention approaches need to address multiple risk factors and emphasize contraceptive methods to avoid sexual consequences. For physical health outcomes, broad prevention approaches, including addressing early sexual initiation, may be effective.

Background and Aims There is a public health concern that the use of e‐cigarettes among non‐smoking young adults could be associated with transition to combustible cigarette use. The current study is a quasi‐experimental test of the relationship between e‐cigarette use and subsequent combustible cigarette use among young adult non‐smokers, accounting for a wide range of common risk factors. Design Logistic regression was used to predict combustible cigarette use on three or more occasions at age 23 years based on age 21 e‐cigarette use. Inverse probability weighting (IPW) was used to account for confounding variables. Setting Data were drawn from the Community Youth Development Study (CYDS), a cohort study of youth recruited in 2003 in 24 rural communities in seven US. states Participants Youth in the CYDS study (n = 4407) were surveyed annually from ages 11 to 16, and at ages 18, 19, 21 and 23 years (in 2016). The sample was gender balanced (50% female) and ethnically diverse (20% Hispanic, 64% white, 3% black and 12% other race or ethnicity). The current study was limited to participants who had never used combustible cigarettes by age 21 (n = 1825). Measurements Age 21 use of e‐cigarettes and age 23 use of combustible cigarettes (three or more occasions) were included in the regression analysis. Age 11–19 measures of 22 common predictors of both e‐cigarette and combustible cigarette use (e.g. pro‐cigarette attitudes, peer smoking, family monitoring) were used to create IPWs. Findings After applying IPW, e‐cigarette use at age 21 was associated with a twofold increase in odds of combustible cigarette use on three or more occasions 2 years later (odds ratio = 2.16, confidence interval 1.23, 3.79). Conclusions Among previously never‐smoking US young adults, e‐cigarette use appears to be strongly associated with subsequent combustible cigarette smoking, over and above measured preexisting risk factors.

No abstract