Validation of the Marijuana Effect Expectancy Questionnaire-Brief

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to evaluate a brief version of the Marijuana Effect Expectancy Questionnaire (MEEQ; Schafer & Brown, 1991). The original MEEQ was reduced to 6 items (MEEQ-B). Principal component analysis (PCA) was performed and two factors were identified (positive effects and negative effects) accounting for 52.3% of the variance. Internal consistencies (0.42 to 0.60) were slightly lower than those of the original MEEQ. The negative effect expectancy scale correlated with criterion variables that assess marijuana use (p ≤ .05). This measure is a helpful tool for clinicians to use when assessing youth expectancies. Replication across different samples of adjudicated youth is recommended. KeywordsAdolescent; incarcerated; marijuana effect expectancies More than half of high school seniors acknowledge using illicit substances, including marijuana, and approximately 25% admit to using drugs in the past 30 days (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2002). The number of youth starting to use marijuana at younger than 15 years old has grown in the last decade; this is significant because those adolescents who start using at 15 years or younger are 2.5 times more likely than those starting to use marijuana at 18 years or older to have symptoms of dependence in adulthood (Dennis et al., 2002). Marijuana use has increased despite its association with higher rates of mental disorders, health problems, and school problems among youth (Dennis et al., 2002 The risk of substance use disorders is also elevated among youth who commit crimes (McClelland, Elkington, Teplin, & Abram, 2004) and are detained (Braithwaite, Conerly, Robillard, Stephens, & Woodring, 2003). Many youth involved in the justice system have a substance use disorder ) and many more regularly use illicit substances, including high rates of marijuana use (95.7%; Lebeau-Craven et al., 2003). McClelland, Elkington et al. (2004) found that marijuana use disorder, alone and/or in addition to alcohol, was the most common substance use disorder among an adolescent detainee population.The subjective and behavioral effects of drugs are influenced by expectancies (Aarons, Brown, Stice, & Coe, 2001). Expectancy theory indicates that "through learning, the effects, consequences, and contexts of substance use act to motivate future substance use" (Brown, 1993, p. 56). There is considerable evidence that expectations for reinforcement from alcohol use are highly correlated with the commencement and continuation of drinking behavior (Brown, 1993;Katz, Fromme, & D'Amico, 2000). For example, adolescents who expect positive and arousing effects from alcohol use have been found to have earlier initiation of drinking behavior and drink more often and with less moderation than those youth who hold less evident expectancies (Aarons et al., 2001). Moreover, young adults are more likely to drink alcohol and use illicit drugs when they hold strong positive and weak negative expectancies for these behaviors (Aarons et al., 2001;Katz et al., 2000;Schafer...

Marijuana use/cessation expectancies and marijuana use in college students

“…Another potential limitation of the current study is that some of the expectancies scales used had low internal consistency (i.e., both subscales of the MEEQ-B and the social effects subscale of the CEQ). Of note, the estimates for MEEQ-B in the current study were similar to those reported in previous studies examining measures of marijuana and alcohol expectancies (23,31); having only three positive and three negative items in the MEEQ-B may account for the low internal consistency. The low reliability of the CEQ subscale may also reflect the fact that measure was adapted from an alcohol measure.…”

Measuring Protective Behavioral Strategies for Marijuana Use Among Young Adults

“…Scales have been developed to assess marijuana expectancies (Buckner et al, 2013;Torrealday et al, 2008), motives for using (Lee et al, 2009;Simons et al, 1998), and consequences (Copeland et al, 2005;Simons et al, 2012) in the young adult population, and recent work has looked at self-efficacy to employ use-reduction strategies (e.g., confidence to use cognitive behavioral strategies to cut down) among a community sample of marijuana users (Davis et al, 2014a(Davis et al, , 2014b. However, there is a need for a broader behavioral measure of protective strategies beyond use reduction among young people.…”

The Effects of Mental Health Symptoms and Marijuana Expectancies on Marijuana Use and Consequences Among At-Risk Adolescents

“…Expectancy theory originally sought to explain why individuals drink alcohol (Goldman, Del Boca, Darkes, 1999; Goldman, 1994) and has been applied to adolescent marijuana use as well (Aarons, Brown, Stice, & Coe, 2001; Torrealday et al, 2008). The theory suggests that individuals learn, through observation and experimentation, positive and negative beliefs about how a drug will affect them.…”