Depressive symptoms predict cannabis vaping initiation among young adults

Background: Young adults in the United States, including college students, have the highest prevalence of cannabis use compared with other age groups. Although cannabis vaping is increasingly prevalent during young adulthood, little is known about factors contributing to the onset of cannabis vaping during this developmental period.

Methods: Participants were 3085 cannabis vaping naïve young adults aged 18-25 years (M = 20.60; SD = 1.80), initially recruited from 24 Texas colleges and participating in a multi-wave, longitudinal study. A survival analysis was conducted to determine if participants reporting elevated depressive symptoms had an increased risk of onset of cannabis vaping over six follow-up waves from fall 2015 to spring 2019 compared to their peers with lower levels of depressive symptoms. Socio-demographic characteristics, time-varying past 30 day substance use, and time-varying peer nicotine vaping were included as covariates in the model.

Results: Twenty-five percent of participants initiated cannabis vaping during the four-year study period, with stable initiation rates from 2015 to 2017 but doubling from 2017 to 2019. Analyses, both unadjusted and adjusted for study covariates, indicated that elevated depressive symptoms were significantly associated with an increased risk of cannabis vaping initiation.

Conclusion: Findings indicate that initiation of cannabis vaping during young adulthood is common, and particularly more likely among those with greater depressive symptoms, thus underscoring the importance of prevention programs that include mental health support services tailored to young adults.