Development and Preliminary Validation of a Comprehensive Marijuana Motives Questionnaire

Abstract

ABSTRACT. Objective: Relatively little research has evaluated motives for using marijuana based on users' self-reported reasons. This article details the construction and psychometric validation of a new marijuana motives questionnaire. Method: Participants included 346 marijuanausing college students who completed online assessments regarding their motives for, frequency of, and problems associated with their marijuana use. Results: Exploratory and confi rmatory factor analysis supported a 12-factor scale, including the following: (1) Enjoyment, (2) Conformity, (3) Coping, (4) Experimentation, (5) Boredom, (6) Alcohol, (7) Celebration, (8) Altered Perception, (9) Social Anxiety, (10) Relative Low Risk, (11) Sleep/Rest, and (12) Availability. Regression results indicated enjoyment, boredom, altered perception, relative low-risk, and sleep/rest were each uniquely associated with greater frequency of use. Experimentation and availability motives were associated with less use. After accounting for use, coping and sleep/rest were associated with signifi cantly more consequences whereas enjoyment was associated with fewer consequences. Additional results comparing the scale to an existing marijuana motives measure indicated comparatively good convergent validity. Conclusions: Emerging adult college students may have several different reasons for using marijuana, which are uniquely related to use and negative consequences. , and theoretical models on the determinants of alcohol use (e.g., Cooper, 1994;Cox and Klinger, 1988), smoking (e.g., Piasecki et al., 2007), and gambling (e.g., Neighbors et al., 2002) have focused on the infl uence of individual differences in motivations as contributing to subsequent patterns of behavior. In terms of substance use, although research has fi rmly established that differences in affect and behavioral regulation motives (e.g., tension reduction, social enhancement) predict patterns of drinking behaviors (e.g., Cooper, 1994;Cox and Klinger, 1990), less research has examined marijuana-use motives and their relation to use/ consequences. The purpose of the present study is to develop a comprehensive marijuana motives questionnaire, conduct preliminary reliability and validity analyses, and subsequently inform the development of an empirical motivational model of marijuana use and related consequences. Marijuana use among young adultsMarijuana is the most commonly used illicit drug among individuals ages 18-25. Among college students, 49% report lifetime use, roughly one third report past-year use, and one fi fth report past-month use. Daily marijuana use among college students is slightly more common than daily alcohol use (4.5% vs 3.7%, respectively; Johnston et al., 2005). In a recent household survey, more than half of individuals ages 18-25 had used marijuana at least once (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, 2005), and approximately 7.4% met marijuana dependence criteria in the past year (Chen et al., 1997). Although many marijuana users do not develop long...

Motivation for Substance Use: Why Do People Use Alcohol, Tobacco and Marijuana?

“…Similarly, more salient conformity motives for substance use (reduction or avoidance of social censure, psychosocial motives) were also related to heavier drinking problems (Bradizza et al, 1999;Carey & Correia, 1997;Lyvers et al, 2010), faster smoking rate (Tate et al, 1994), and more pronounced problems related to marijuana use (Simons et al, 1998). Enhancement (increase of positive mood states, enjoyment, stimulation) was related to increased levels of alcohol use (Cooper, 1994;Kuntsche et al, 2006b), more chronic smoking behavior and faster smoking rate (Tate et al, 1994), increased levels of marijuana use (Simons et al, 1998;Lee et al, 2009), and more problems associated with marijuana use (Lee, Neighbors, & Woods, 2007), and along with stress relief (coping), was the most commonly reported motive for smoking (Fidler & West, 2009). Altered perception or perspectives (expansion motives) was associated with heavier marijuana use and more problems associated with its use (Lee et al, 2007), and also greater frequency of marijuana use (Lee et al, 2009).…”

“…Reasons for Smoking Scale (RSS) by Ikard, Green, & Horn, 1969; Drinking Motive Questionnaire Revised (DMQ-R) by Cooper, 1994), the literature on motivation for marijuana use is relatively limited and has primarily been adapted from previous research on alcohol use motives (e.g. Marijuana Motives Measure (MMM), Simons, Correia, Carey, & Borsari, 1998; for more details see Lee, Neighbors, Hendershot, & Grossbard, 2009). Simons et al, (1998) in order to explain marijuana use motives, expanded the four-dimensional motivational model for drinking with an additional factor, named expansion (for MMM dimension see also Chabrol, Ducongé, Casas, Roura, & Carey, 2005;Zvolensky et al, 2007), while more recent research identified a higher number (e.g.…”

“…12) of specific marijuana use motives (e.g. by using Comprehensive Marijuana Motives Questionnaire by Lee et al, 2009).…”

“…Coping motives (reduction or avoidance of negative emotions, boredom, sedative motives) were found to be related to heavier drinking problems (Bradizza, Reifman, & Barnes, 1999;Carey & Correia, 1997;Lyvers et al, 2010), increased levels of alcohol use (Cooper, 1994;Kuntsche, Knibbe, Gmel, & Engels, 2006b), more chronic smoking behavior (Tate et al, 1994), and increased levels of marijuana use (Simons et al, 1998;Lee et al, 2009). Similarly, more salient conformity motives for substance use (reduction or avoidance of social censure, psychosocial motives) were also related to heavier drinking problems (Bradizza et al, 1999;Carey & Correia, 1997;Lyvers et al, 2010), faster smoking rate (Tate et al, 1994), and more pronounced problems related to marijuana use (Simons et al, 1998).…”

“…Enhancement (increase of positive mood states, enjoyment, stimulation) was related to increased levels of alcohol use (Cooper, 1994;Kuntsche et al, 2006b), more chronic smoking behavior and faster smoking rate (Tate et al, 1994), increased levels of marijuana use (Simons et al, 1998;Lee et al, 2009), and more problems associated with marijuana use (Lee, Neighbors, & Woods, 2007), and along with stress relief (coping), was the most commonly reported motive for smoking (Fidler & West, 2009). Altered perception or perspectives (expansion motives) was associated with heavier marijuana use and more problems associated with its use (Lee et al, 2007), and also greater frequency of marijuana use (Lee et al, 2009). Social motives (obtaining positive social rewards) were more related to light, infrequent, non-problematic alcohol use and with drinking in social settings (Cooper, 1994;Kuntsche et al, 2006b), but also to the danger of experi-encing negative consequences of marijuana use (Simons et al, 1998).…”