title: Adolescent self-control predicts joint trajectories of marijuana use and depressive mood into young adulthood among urban African Americans and Puerto Ricans.
abstract: Previous studies have identified an association between depressive mood and marijuana use. We examined adolescent self-control as a predictor of membership in joint developmental trajectories of depressive mood and marijuana use from adolescence to young adulthood. Urban African Americans and Puerto Ricans (N = 838) were sampled when participants were on average 14, 19, 24, and 29 years old. Using growth mixture modeling, four joint trajectory groups of depressive mood and marijuana use were established: low marijuana use/low depressive mood, low marijuana use/intermediate depressive mood, high marijuana use/low depressive mood, and high marijuana use/high depressive mood. Weighted logistic regression analysis showed that self-control at age 14 distinguished the high marijuana use/high depressive mood group and the low marijuana use/low depressive mood group from each of the other groups. Findings show that the co-occurrence of high levels of marijuana use and depressive mood from adolescence into young adulthood is predicted by low levels of self-control in adolescence. On the other hand, high selfcontrol is associated with low marijuana use and low levels of depression over time. Thus, while deficits in self-control in adolescence constitute a significant risk for maladjustment over time, high self-control exerts a protective factor with regard to marijuana use and depressive mood into young adulthood.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, New York University School of Medicine, 215 Lexington Avenue, 15th floor, New York, NY, 10016, USA, kerstin.pahl@nyumc.org.
authors.forename: Kerstin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Pahl
authors.forename: Judith S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Brook
authors.forename: Jung Yeon
authors.initials: JY
authors.lastname: Lee
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D000328:Adult; D000339:Affect; D001741:Black or African American / Q000523:psychology*; D003863:Depression / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006630:Hispanic or Latino / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D008385:Marijuana Smoking / Q000523:psychology*; D008960:Models, Psychological; D012927:Social Control, Informal; D014505:Urban Population; D055815:Young Adult