[Examination of emotion regulation difficulties, coping, impulsivity, external-internal control and sensation seeking among occasional and regular marijuana users].

INTRODUCTION

Several studies have investigated the relationship between personality and psychoactive substance use. Researches of personality and marijuana use suggests that certain personality traits differentiate between occasional and regular marijuana consumers. Understanding the relationship between individual persona - lity traits and marijuana use is a key step in the development of prevention and treatment methods. In the current study, we present the development of emotion regulation difficulties, coping with stress, impulsivity, external-internal control and sensation seeking in occasional and regular marijuana users.

METHODS

322 people participated in our study, within this 51 occasional and 56 regular marijuana users and 215 non-marijuana users who formed the control group. The examined personality traits were measured with the Diffi - culties in Emotion Regulation Scale, the Coping Inventory for Stressful Situations, the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale, the Internal-External Locus of Control Scale and the Sensation Seeking Scale.

RESULTS

Varying levels of marijuana use increased difficulty in emotion regulation as well as impulsivity. Addi tio nally, the use of emotion-oriented coping strategies were most common in occasional and regular marijuana use. Regular marijuana users were more likely to have external control than occasional users. Non-marijuana users were less sen - sation seekers that the two groups of marijuana users, however, we did not find significant difference between occasio nal and regular users.