Aim:
Despite knowledge that generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is associated with increased risk for cannabis use, factors contributing to the co-occurrence of GAD and cannabis use remain understudied. The current study evaluated the contributions of anxiety sensitivity (AS) and intolerance of uncertainty (IU) in terms of cannabis use and coping motives for use in individuals with clinically elevated worry.
Methods:
Participants were 220 undergraduate students (Mage = 19.44, SD = 2.46, range = 18–40; 82.3% female; 89.1% White) who completed self-report measures.
Results:
When controlling for sex and negative affect, greater AS, but not IU, was significantly positively associated with greater frequency of past month cannabis use (4.4% variance) and coping motives for use (4.9% variance). AS-Social Concerns was significantly positively associated with coping motives for cannabis use in follow-up analyses (7.1% variance).
Conclusions:
Intervention efforts aimed at reducing cannabis use among individuals at-risk for GAD may benefit from targeting AS.