Department of Psychology, St. Francis Xavier University, 2323 Notre Dame Ave., Antigonish, NS, B2G 2W5, Canada.
University of Victoria, Victoria, BC, V8P 5C2, Canada.
Prev Sci. 2019 Feb;20(2):257-269. doi: 10.1007/s11121-018-0904-7.
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 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. Data were from the Victoria Healthy Youth Survey, a 10-year prospective study of a randomly recruited community sample of 662 youth (48% male; M = 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.
青春期和青年期是为终身健康奠定经济基础的关键阶段。迄今为止，对于大麻使用是否与成年后教育和职业成功不佳相关，仍存在较少共识。我们调查了从 15 岁到 28 岁期间大麻使用轨迹与成年早期的多种经济福祉指标之间的关联，包括成就水平（即教育程度和职业声望）、工作特征（即全职与兼职工作、工作时间、年收入）、经济压力（即债务、支付生活必需品困难、延迟就医）和感知工作场所压力。数据来自维多利亚健康青年调查，这是一项为期 10 年的前瞻性研究，对随机招募的社区 662 名青年（48%为男性；平均年龄为 15.5 岁）进行了研究，每两年评估一次，共进行了六次评估。模型根据基线年龄、性别、社会经济地位、高中成绩、重度饮酒、吸烟以及内化和对立违抗性障碍症状进行了调整。慢性使用者（我们最高风险类别）在成年早期报告的教育程度较低，职业声望较低，收入较低，债务较多，支付医疗费用的困难较大。同样，增加者也报告了较低的教育程度、职业声望和收入。减少者，他们在早期有较高的使用量，但随着时间的推移逐渐减少，在经济福祉方面表现出了弹性，与不使用者相似。各组在就业状况或感知工作场所压力方面没有差异。研究结果表明，青少年向青年期过渡期间，大麻的早期发作和持续高频率或越来越频繁的使用与成年早期实现教育和职业成功的风险相关，并随后影响健康。
