Parenting in the age of legal pot: Household rules, conversations help guide teen use
February 7, 2019
Science Daily/University of Washington
The legalization of marijuana in Washington state in 2012 gave parents the opportunity for a new teachable moment. Many say that as society has become more permissive, they want information and advic
When Washington voters legalized marijuana in 2012, many parents found themselves with a new teachable moment.
Though illegal for anyone under 21, the drug presented a dilemma similar to alcohol: Retailers sold it, people openly consumed it -- sometimes to excess -- and parents themselves struggled with how to talk to their kids about their own use, past or present.
Unlike with alcohol, research on the health and developmental effects of marijuana is still emerging. And the law's complexity, along with the accessibility of marijuana products and stores, has left parents thinking more deliberately about how and why to set some ground rules.
Most parents agree that marijuana should be off-limits to children and teenagers, but they want information and advice from trustworthy sources, said Nicole Eisenberg, a research scientist with the University of Washington's Social Development Research Group. Those findings come from a study published online Jan. 16 in the Journal of Child and Family Studies, by Eisenberg and a team of researchers.
"What I heard a lot of parents saying is, essentially, 'I can tell my kids not to use it, but I just don't know how to enforce and reinforce that message,'" Eisenberg said. "Parents are having a hard time reconciling societal norms with personal norms. Society has become more permissive, but at home, most parents don't want their children to use marijuana. It's a challenge that leaves them feeling like they don't know what to do."
To that end, parents said they want guidance, she added.
"Parents are eager to learn, and open to materials and programs that can help them. They're open to factual, unbiased, scientific information, and they want to know how to talk to their kids," Eisenberg said.
Based on focus group interviews with 54 adults, the study examined parents' attitudes and challenges around marijuana use. Researchers grouped parents according to the ages of their children and by their own usage of marijuana during the past year (as measured by a prior confidential survey); those who had used during the past year, to any degree, were in one group, and those who had not were in another. That separation was designed to better identify differences in how these groups parent; participants were not told anything about other group members' marijuana use.
Yet, in both groups, there were common themes that emerged which can be useful in delivering educational and prevention-oriented messages, Eisenberg said.
For parents, talking to kids about marijuana can mean many things: explaining its risks and effects, deciding on rules and consequences, and choosing whether to share their own history. Researchers didn't offer answers -- that wasn't their role, or the purpose of the study -- but parents appeared to appreciate hearing from each other, Eisenberg said.
Among the challenges parents discussed were adequate and appropriate consequences for breaking house rules, while a few parents of older kids, especially in the user-groups, described a harm-reduction approach, such as discussing with their teens how to use marijuana safely. Parents who chose this strategy said that while they didn't want their children to use marijuana, they figured that if the children were going to try it anyway, they might as well educate them.
What makes the issue so thorny is the relatively rapid legal and cultural change around marijuana, said Rick Kosterman, a co-author of the study from the Social Development Research Group. While marijuana has become even more available since these interviews were conducted in 2014, parents' questions are unlikely to have changed.
"In many ways, parenting around marijuana use is similar to that of alcohol use, since they're both legal for adults," Kosterman said. "A key difference is where I think parents and society in general have accepted that some people can become dependent on alcohol and it can ruin people's lives if used in excess. Parents and kids aren't so clear about risks of marijuana use -- like the potential for misuse or effects on adolescent brains.
"We are still learning about the risks of teen marijuana use, as well as potential medical uses."
The study's conclusion points to how parents might seek answers, whether through community-oriented drug prevention programs or through information from health care providers, public health agencies or school programs.
"The fact that parents in this study openly asked for guidance highlights an opportunity for the prevention science community to work with medical professionals, schools and policymakers to fulfill this vital need at a critical time of policy transition in the United States," the authors wrote.
Alongside this study of parenting practices is a companion study by the same research team, forthcoming in the Journal of the Society for Social Work and Research, about parent perceptions of teens' exposure to marijuana use following legalization in Washington state.
The parents who agreed to participate in both studies came from a longitudinal study the research group launched in the 1980s called the Seattle Social Development Project. The focus group sample was 39 percent white, 37 percent African American, 17 percent Asian American and 7 percent Native American. Of these groups, approximately 5 percent were Latino.
The study on parenting practices was funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse. Additional authors were Tiffany Jones, a postdoctoral researcher at the UW School of Social Work and an affiliate at Colorado State University; Jennifer Bailey and Kevin Haggerty, of the Social Development Research Group; and Jungeun Olivia Lee of USC.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/02/190207123242.htm
Recreational marijuana legalization: Do more youth use or do youth use more?
What impact may legalization of recreational marijuana in Oregon have on teen marijuana use?
January 8, 2018
Science Daily/Oregon Research Institute
What impact may legalization of recreational marijuana in Oregon have on teen marijuana use? Recent results from an Oregon Research Institute (ORI) study indicate that the influence of legalization on youth may depend on whether they were already using at the time of legalization. Following legalization of recreational marijuana, no significant changes in the numbers of youth who used marijuana occurred, yet increases in the frequency of use by youth who were already using marijuana were found. For teenagers who had tried marijuana by 8th grade, the frequency of use during the following year increased 26% more for those who were in 9th grade after marijuana was legalized compared to those who were in 9th grade prior to legalization. The research results are published online in Psychology of Addictive Behaviors.
"When making policy decisions about marijuana, it is important to consider how those policies can effect teenagers. Although legalization of recreational marijuana prohibits use in those under 21, changes in youth attitudes toward marijuana, age of initiation, and frequency of use may occur," said Julie C. Rusby, Ph.D., principal investigator of the research.
When Oregon began legal sales of recreational marijuana in October 2015, Rusby and her team were perfectly positioned. Their study examining substance use among Oregon 8th and 9th graders was already underway and investigators were able to collect data about youth marijuana use before and after legalization. Additionally, Oregon allowed counties and cities to prohibit marijuana sales, so investigators examined the impact of community sales policy on teenagers' use. Teenagers from 11 rural and suburban middle schools in seven Oregon school districts answered surveys about their marijuana use, attitudes towards marijuana, and willingness to use marijuana. Their parents answered questions about their own use of marijuana.
The association of legalization with changes in youth marijuana use varied by the sales policy of the community. Youth surveyed prior to legalization from communities that later prohibited sales were less likely to increase willingness and intent to try marijuana compared to those from communities that later allowed sales. Similarly, youth surveyed prior to legalization from communities prohibiting sales increased marijuana use at a lower rate by the spring of ninth grade compared with youth in communities with sales. Youth surveyed post-legalization from communities with marijuana sales had lower rates of marijuana use during spring of eighth grade and increased marijuana use almost twice as much by the spring of ninth grade compared with the other groups. There were no differences for legalization and community policy on parent report of their own use.
"In states that legalize recreational marijuana, study results point to the importance of preventing youth who use marijuana from escalating their use," noted Rusby.
The results indicate there may be an immediate impact of legalization for youth who had already initiated marijuana use because they increased their use after legalization. This was true even in communities that prohibited recreational marijuana sales, indicating that community sales policies may not effectively reduce the frequency of use by teenagers. Research that follows up teenage marijuana use post-legalization for a longer period of time and in different locations could further contribute to inform marijuana policy. Prevention campaigns that educate youth of the risks of using marijuana while their brains are still developing, and building capacity and resources for parents to discuss marijuana with their adolescent children, may provide guidance as communities and states navigate the new landscape of legal recreational marijuana.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/01/180108161204.htm