Background and hypotheses

Extant research has not studied whether norm perceptions differ between young adult cannabis users who do and do not meet screening criteria for problematic cannabis use. Drawing on sociocultural norms research on alcohol, we hypothesized that users meeting screening criteria for cannabis problems would be more likely than those not meeting those criteria to (1) mistakenly believe that social reference groups use about the same amount of cannabis as they do, (2) adjust private approval of peer cannabis use to match mistaken public approval norms, and (3) believe that behavioral and social consequences are less definitive of problematic cannabis use.

Methods

Secondary analyses of data from 753 cannabis users recruited from a Canadian university population survey (57% female; M age = 22.58). Parametric and non-parametric ANOVAs examined respondents’ perceptions and beliefs regarding the cannabis use of same-sex friends, students, and adults living in the same Canadian province.

Results

Contrary to prediction, problematic cannabis users were more likely than non-problematic users to (accurately) believe that social reference groups use cannabis less frequently than themselves. As hypothesized, problematic users were more likely than non-problematic users to adjust private approval of fellow students’ cannabis use to match perceived public approval, and to believe that sociobehavioral criteria are less definitive of cannabis problems.

Conclusion

Results support the need to develop brief interventions to correct misperceptions of (a) injunctive cannabis norms and (b) sociobehavioral criteria that define safe versus problematic use, rather than perceived frequency of use in social reference groups.

中文翻译：

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加拿大大学生对大麻的规范认知。

背景和假设

现有的研究尚未研究规范的观念是否在符合和不符合有问题的大麻使用筛选标准的年轻成年大麻使用者之间有所不同。根据对酒精饮料的社会文化规范研究，我们假设符合大麻筛查标准的用户比不符合这些标准的用户更有可能（1）错误地认为社交参考群体使用的大麻数量与他们大致相同，（ 2）调整对同龄人大麻使用的私人批准，以匹配错误的公共批准规范，并且（3）认为行为和社会后果对有问题的大麻使用的确定性较小。

方法

从753个大麻用户的数据进行了二次分析，从加拿大大学人口调查招募（57％为女性;中号年龄= 22.58）。参数和非参数方差分析调查了受访者对大麻使用在同一个加拿大省内的同性朋友，学生和成年人的看法和信念。

结果

与预测相反，有问题的大麻使用者比没有问题的大麻使用者更有可能（准确地）认为社交参考人群使用大麻的频率低于他们自己。如假设的那样，有问题的用户比无问题的用户更有可能调整对同学的大麻使用的私人批准，以与感知到的公众批准相匹配，并认为社会行为标准对大麻问题的定义较少。

结论

结果支持需要采取简短的干预措施来纠正对（a）禁令性大麻规范和（b）定义安全使用与问题使用的社会行为标准的误解，而不是对社会参考群体中使用频率的误解。