The Protective Role of Savoring on Coping Motives for Cannabis Use and Consequences

Abstract

Young adults use cannabis and experience negative consequences at high rates. Cannabis use motives include coping, conformity, enhancement, expansion, and social. Savoring involves focusing attention on positive events to intensify positive emotions. Savoring might be differentially protective or risky when considering motives in relation to cannabis outcomes. We examined the interactions between cannabis motives and savoring on cannabis frequency and consequences. Young adults (N = 154) who used cannabis at least weekly in the past month completed self-report measures. The interaction between coping and savoring was associated with cannabis use frequency (b = -0.04, p = .001), such that coping motives were positively associated with cannabis use frequency at low levels of savoring (b = 0.80, p = .002), but negatively associated with cannabis use frequency at high levels of savoring (b = -0.80, p = .002). The interaction between coping and savoring was associated with cannabis-related consequences (b = 0.01, p < .001), such that coping motives were positively associated with cannabis-related consequences at low levels of savoring (b = 0.44, p < .001), but not at high levels of savoring (b = 0.10, p = .47). Savoring may protect against the effects of coping motives on cannabis use frequency and related consequences. While these findings are preliminary, future work should explore how a savoring intervention might improve cannabis outcomes via changes in coping motives.

Keywords: Cannabis use; cannabis-related consequences; positive psychology; savoring; young adults.