Associations of adolescent cannabis use with academic performance and mental health: a longitudinal study of upper middle class youth.
Open accessAbstract
Background There is a hypothesis that low socioeconomic status (SES) may explain the link between cannabis use and poorer academic performance and mental health. A key question, therefore, is whether adolescent cannabis use is associated with poorer academic performance and mental health in high SES communities where there is reduced potential for confounding.Methods Youth (n=254) from an upper middle class community were followed prospectively through the four years of high school (from age 14/15 to age 17/18). Past-year frequency of cannabis use was assessed annually. Official school records of academic performance and self-reported mental health symptoms (externalizing and internalizing symptoms) were assessed in grades 9 and 12.Results Persistent cannabis use across the four years of high school was associated with lower grade-point average (β=-0.18, p=.006), lower Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) score (β=-0.13, p=.038), and greater externalizing symptoms (β=0.29, p<.001) in 12th grade, but not with greater internalizing symptoms (β=0.04, p=.53). Moreover, persistent cannabis use was associated with lower grade-point average (β=-0.13, p=.014) and greater externalizing symptoms (β=0.24, p=.002) in 12th grade, even after controlling for 9th grade levels of these outcomes. Similar associations were observed for persistent alcohol and tobacco use. Effects for persistent cannabis use became non-significant after controlling for persistent alcohol and tobacco use, reflecting the difficulties of disentangling effects of cannabis from effects of alcohol and tobacco.Conclusions Low SES cannot fully explain associations between cannabis use and poorer academic performance and mental health.
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A few studies failed to find a statistical correlation between cannabis and depressive symptoms.
“In contrast, a few studies failed to find a statistical correlation between cannabis and depressive symptoms.39,48,55,56,59,60”
From Association of Cannabis Use in Adolescence and Risk of Depression, Anxiety, and Suicidality in Young Adulthood (2019) · cites this paper as [48]
The Discussion reports no statistically significant association between cannabis use and internalizing symptoms in this sample. It also states that the measure combined depression and anxiety symptoms, so the paper does not establish a null association for depressive symptoms specifically. (LLM, conf=0.86)
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“Conversely, Meier et al. (2015) examined the association between cannabis use and academic performance in a high socioeconomic status population and found that cannabis use was associated with lower test scores and GPA.”
- Authors
- Meier, M. H., Hill, M. L., Small, P. J., & Luthar, S. S.
- Affiliations
- Arizona State University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Meier, Madeline H.
- Venue
- Drug and Alcohol Dependence
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2015-11
- Volume
- 156
- Pages
- 207-212
- ISSN
- 0376-8716 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC4633365
- OpenAlex
- W1900121963
- Cited by
- 116
- References
- 47
- Citations by year
- 2026: 7 · 2025: 5 · 2024: 10 · 2023: 12 · 2022: 13 · 2021: 11 · 2020: 11 · 2019: 17 · 2018: 8 · 2017: 11 · 2016: 11
- FWCI
- 7.22
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Drug and Alcohol Dependence (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institute on Drug Abuse (R01DA014385)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Pharmacology › Cannabis and Cannabinoid Research
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Epidemiology › Substance Abuse Treatment and Outcomes
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Physiology › Smoking Behavior and Cessation
- Keywords
- adolescent cannabis use, academic performance, mental health, externalizing problems, internalizing problems, socioeconomic status, high school students, grade point average, SAT scores, alcohol consumption, tobacco use
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Alcohol Drinking, Aptitude Tests, Educational Status, Female, Humans, Longitudinal Studies, Male, Marijuana Smoking, Mental Health, Prospective Studies, Sex Factors, Social Class, Tobacco Use
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