It’s no secret that studies show that sexually diverse youth – in particular, lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) youth – use more cannabis and experience more mental health challenges than their heterosexual peers.
But what about the changes that occur in the rates of cannabis use: do they precede those related to mental health or is it the other way around? A new study from Université de Montréal offers some answers.
In the Journal of Abnormal Psychology, Kira London-Nadeau, a doctoral student and CIHR Vanier Scholar in the Department of Psychology at UdeM and the CHU Sainte-Justine Research Centre, provides an update.
In her study, conducted under the direction of Professor Natalie Castellanos-Ryan and with the support of Professors Jean Séguin and Sophie Parent, London-Nadeau analyzed data collected from 1,548 adolescent boys and girls – including 128 LGB adolescents – as part of the Longitudinal Study of Child Development in Quebec supported by CIHR and the Institut de la Statistique du Québec.
Participants were followed from the age of five months and the study was based on their responses to questionnaires collected at ages 13, 15 and 17. Although there was an association between depressive symptoms at age 15 and increased cannabis use at age 17 in the general sample, the association was five times stronger among LGB youth.
According to London-Nadeau, this relationship may signal a practice of LGB youth self-medicating with cannabis to cope with…
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It’s no secret that studies show that sexually diverse youth – in particular, lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) youth – use more cannabis and experience more mental health challenges than their heterosexual peers.
But what about the changes that occur in the rates of cannabis use: do they precede those related to mental health or is it the other way around? A new study from Université de Montréal offers some answers.
In the Journal of Abnormal Psychology, Kira London-Nadeau, a doctoral student and CIHR Vanier Scholar in the Department of Psychology at UdeM and the CHU Sainte-Justine Research Centre, provides an update.
In her study, conducted under the direction of Professor Natalie Castellanos-Ryan and with the support of Professors Jean Séguin and Sophie Parent, London-Nadeau analyzed data collected from 1,548 adolescent boys and girls – including 128 LGB adolescents – as part of the Longitudinal Study of Child Development in Quebec supported by CIHR and the Institut de la Statistique du Québec.
Participants were followed from the age of five months and the study was based on their responses to questionnaires collected at ages 13, 15 and 17. Although there was an association between depressive symptoms at age 15 and increased cannabis use at age 17 in the general sample, the association was five times stronger among LGB youth.
According to London-Nadeau, this relationship may signal a practice of LGB youth self-medicating with cannabis to cope with…