According to a brand-new study in the journal Cannabis and Cannabinoid Research, bisexual young adults have a greater frequency of marijuana usage and are most likely to use it as a means of handling mental health issues and for the purpose of enhancing experiences.
Youths classified as bisexual not only use marijuana more frequently however likewise are more likely to use it to deal with mental health concerns and for what researchers call experiential “enhancement.”.
A recent research study, entitled “The Pot at the End of the Rainbow,” is one of the very first to analyze intentions for marijuana use amongst sexual minorities quantitatively. Led by Washington State University psychologists, scientists analyzed survey information from nearly 4,700 college student from across the country. Of the individuals, 23% were classified as bisexual after suggesting that they were not exclusively attracted to one gender.
” The group categorized as bisexual was more most likely to report using marijuana to cope as well as for improvement, which is a bit surprising,” stated Kyle Schofield, a WSU Ph.D. prospect in psychology and first author on the research study published in the journal Cannabis and Cannabinoid Research. “The coping intention was less surprising because we also saw that the group classified as bisexual reported higher levels of all the mental health problems that we looked at in the study.”.
The bisexual group reported greater levels of marijuana use condition, social anxiety, generalized anxiety, depression, and suicidality than either the groups categorized as specifically “straight” or “gay”– findings that remain in line with previous research..
” People who remain in sexual minority groups not only deal with normal life tension however likewise an additional column of tension thats related to being a sexual minority,” stated Schofield. “For bisexual individuals, there may be even more various types of tension considering that they can deal with discrimination from gay along with straight neighborhoods, and additional stress can cause unfavorable psychological health results.”.
The authors stated the research study results might assist improve psychological health target interventions for bisexual people.
They relied on a concern that asked individuals to rank their attraction to genders on a scale, organizing those who reported being “primarily heterosexual” and “primarily homosexual” as bisexual along with those who claimed both types of tourist attraction. This yielded 3,483 who were in the “straight” group, another 1,081 in the “bisexual” group, and a little group of 105 individuals who were classified as “gay.”.
The researchers utilized the “Marijuana Motives Measure,” which is based off one established for alcohol, to assess five potential reasons for use: enhancement, conformity, growth, coping and social. While a few of the motives, like coping, have actually negative concerns associated with them, improvement does not, since yet.
While the research study might not give a factor this intention was so strong with the bisexual group, Cuttler speculated that it may relate to being open to new experiences.
” Enhancement has to do with expanding ones own awareness, being more open to experience and more innovative, so maybe everything this returns to openness,” stated Cuttler, an assistant teacher of psychology and senior author on the study.
From this sample, the researchers also found that individuals in the bisexual group were not only most likely to report using cannabis and using it more frequently but likewise were more most likely to utilize all 3 types of marijuana listed in the survey: flower, edibles and concentrates.
Cuttler said this was worrying because focuses typically contain a higher level of THC or tetrahydrocannabinol, the psychedelic element of cannabis.
The authors acknowledged that the research study was restricted by the usage of sexual tourist attraction information instead of sexual identity however hoped the results would spur further examinations. The authors also kept in mind that they had actually limited power to identify distinctions in the group classified as gay offered the fairly small size of that group.
” I hope that this research study assists initiate future, massive research studies where individuals have the ability to self-identify themselves as gay, straight or bisexual in addition to those with large samples of other groups that are less studied, such as transgender and nonbinary individuals,” said Cuttler.
Reference: “Pot at the End of the Rainbow: Cannabis Use Among Sexual Minorities” by Kyle Schofield, Carrie Cuttler, Bradley T. Conner, Mark A. Prince, Addictions Research Team (ART) Matthew R. Pearson, Adrian J. Bravo, Craig A. Field, Vivian Gonzalez, James M. Henson, Jon M. Houck, Kevin M. King, Benjamin O. Ladd, Kevin S. Montes and Maria M. Wong, 3 January 2023, Cannabis and Cannabinoid Research.DOI: 10.1089/ can.2022.0240.
A current study, titled “The Pot at the End of the Rainbow,” is one of the very first to analyze intentions for cannabis use among sexual minorities quantitatively. Of the individuals, 23% were classified as bisexual after indicating that they were not exclusively attracted to one gender.
They relied on a question that asked individuals to rank their destination to genders on a scale, grouping those who reported being “mostly heterosexual” and “mainly homosexual” as bisexual along with those who claimed both types of destination. This yielded 3,483 who were in the “straight” group, another 1,081 in the “bisexual” group, and a little group of 105 individuals who were categorized as “gay.”.