Associations Between Marijuana Use Trajectories and Educational and Occupational Success in Young Adulthood

Prevention Science https://doi.org/10.1007/s11121-018-0904-7 Associations Between Marijuana Use Trajectories and Educational and Occupational Success in Young Adulthood Kara Thompson 1 2 2 & Bonnie Leadbeater & Megan Ames & Gabriel J. Merrin 2 # The Author(s) 2018 Abstract Adolescence and young adulthood is a critical stage when the economic foundations for life-long health are established. To date, there is little consensus as to whether marijuana use is associated with poor educational and occupational success in adulthood. We investigated associations between trajectories of marijuana use from ages 15 to 28 and multiple indicators of economic wellbeing in young adulthood including achievement levels (i.e., educational attainment and occupational prestige), work characteristics (i.e., full vs part-time employment, hours worked, annual income), financial strain (i.e., debt, trouble paying for necessities, delaying medical attention), and perceived workplace stress. Data were from the Victoria Healthy Youth Survey, a 10-year prospective study of a randomly recruited community sample of 662 youth (48% male; Mage = 15.5), followed biennially for six assessments. Models adjusted for baseline age, sex, SES, high school grades, heavy drinking, smoking, and internalizing and oppositional defiant disorder symptoms. Chronic users (our highest risk class) reported lower levels of educational attainment, lower occupational prestige, lower income, greater debt, and more difficulty paying for medical necessities in young adulthood compared to abstainers. Similarly, increasers also reported lower educational attainment, occupational prestige, and income. Decreasers, who had high early use but quit over time, showed resilience in economic well-being, performing similar to abstainers. Groups did not differ on employment status or perceived workplace stress. The findings indicate that early onset and persistent high or increasingly frequent use of marijuana in the transition from adolescent to young adulthood is associated with risks for achieving educational and occupational success, and subsequently health, in young adulthood. Keywords Marijuana . Trajectories . Educational attainment . Occupational outcomes . Young adult Associations Between Marijuana Use Trajectories and Educational and Occupational Success in Adulthood North American adolescents and young adults are among the youngest and most frequent users of marijuana in the developed world. According to a UNICEF survey (2013), Canadian youth ages 11 to 15 years old are the highest users, with 28% of young people reporting marijuana use in the last year. The Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s11121-018-0904-7) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. * Kara Thompson 1 Department of Psychology, St. Francis Xavier University, 2323 Notre Dame Ave., Antigonish, NS B2G 2W5, Canada 2 University of Victoria, Victoria, BC V8P 5C2, Canada United States (US) ranked 5th, with 22% of youth reporting marijuana use in the last year. As the landscape of legislation around marijuana use rapidly shifts across North America, concerns about the short- and long-term effects of youth marijuana use on health and well-being is growing. Already, we have seen marked shifts in the prevalence of use and decreases in youth perceptions of risk in jurisdictions that have legalized, or are planning to legalize, recreational marijuana use (Cerdá et al. 2017; Kerr et al. 2017; McKiernan and Fleming 2017). Moreover, there is growing evidence that marijuana use is associated with a myriad of negative consequences for youth, including injuries and accidents, delinquency, cognitive difficulties, mental health problems, and substance use dependency (Duncan et al. 2015; Hall 2015; Lisdahl et al. 2013; Simons et al. 2012). However, there is little consensus as to whether marijuana use is associated with poor psychosocial outcomes, particularly educational and occupational success in adulthood (National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine 2017). The current study Prev Sci investigates the associations between previously established trajectories of marijuana use from ages 15 to 28 and multiple indicators of economic well-being in young adulthood including achievement levels (i.e., educational attainment and occupational prestige), work characteristics (i.e., full- vs part-time employment, hours worked, annual income), financial strain (i.e., debt, trouble paying for necessities, delaying medical attention), and perceived workplace stress. Economic Well-Being and Health Socioeconomic status (SES) is a key determinant of health (Matthews and Gallo 2011; Thoits 2010). Key indicators of SES, such as education level, income, and occupational prestige have been consistently linked to health status, with research showing disproportionately higher levels of mental and physical health problems, and morbidity and mortality among those with lower SES compared to those with higher SES (Galea et al. 2011; Hout 2012; Reiss 2013; Stringhini et al. 2017). Life course approaches suggest that the associations between SES and health develop early and accumulate over time (Matthews and Gallo 2011; Singh-Manoux et al. 2004). Adolescence and young adulthood is a particularly critical period when the foundations for healthy lifestyles and economic well-being are established (i.e., education attainment, securing full-time employment) (Schulte and Hser 2013). However, not all young people navigate this critical period successfully. Unemployment rates among young adults (aged 15 to 24) in Canada and the US have remained high for the last two decades, currently sitting at 13 and 10% respectively (OECD 2017). Moreover, the pursuit of postsecondary education among lower SES youth is declining in the US (Ma et al. 2016). The economic well-being of young people has been further compromised by the high costs of tuition, growing student debt, the rise in short-term and part-time employment, low wages, and delayed financial and residential independence (Bureau of Labor Statistics 2017; Morissette et al. 2013; Morissette 2016). Excessive marijuana use may further disadvantage young people by diminishing cognitive functioning and motivation that impacts educational and occupational goals, facilitating engagement in social contexts which compromise academic achievement, or by creating health problems that are incompatible with educational and occupational success (Fergusson and Boden 2008; Scholes-Balog et al. 2016; Zhang et al. 2016). Marijuana Use and Educational and Occupational Outcomes Health risk behaviors, such as substance use, are associated with SES and also contribute to socioeconomic inequalities in health outcomes. A meta-analysis by Lemstra et al. (2008) showed that low SES youth ages 10 to 15 were 22% more likely to engage in alcohol and marijuana use compared to hig (...truncated)