The Associations of Basic Psychological Need Satisfaction and Need Frustration with Cannabis-Related Outcomes in a Multi-Site Sample of College Students

ABSTRACT

Psychological need satisfaction and need frustration, proposed by self-determination theory, may serve as conditions that foster health-promoting and health-impairing behaviors related to cannabis use. In the present study, we examined the measurement model of psychological need satisfaction and need frustration and their associations with cannabis protective behavioral strategies use, negative cannabis-related consequences, and cannabis use severity. Data were from 1394 college students from 10 universities across the U.S. who reported past-month cannabis use. A higher-order factor model representing general psychological need satisfaction and need frustration provided a good fit to the data. Regressing the three observed cannabis outcome variables onto these higher-order latent factors, we found that greater need satisfaction was associated with more frequent cannabis protective behavioral strategies use and fewer negative cannabis-related consequences. Greater need frustration was associated with greater negative cannabis-related consequences and cannabis use severity. Further, an interaction effect between need satisfaction and need frustration emerged for each cannabis outcome such that greater need satisfaction attenuated the associations between need frustration and cannabis outcomes and greater need frustration strengthened the associations between need satisfaction and cannabis outcomes. Implications for the roles of need satisfaction and need frustration in cannabis use and future intervention development are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Self-determination theory
• psychological needs
• cannabis
• college students

Acknowledgments

DKR is supported by an individual training grant (F32 AA028712) from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA). FJS was supported by an institutional training grant from NIAAA (T32 AA018108). NIAAA had no role in the study design, collection, analysis or interpretation of the data, writing the manuscript, or the decision to submit the paper for publication.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Author contributors

Addictions Research Team*

*This project was completed by the Addictions Research Team (ART), which includes the following investigators: Matthew R. Pearson, University of New Mexico (Coordinating PI); Adrian J. Bravo, William & Mary (site PI); Bradley T. Conner, Colorado State University – Fort Collins (site PI); Carrie Cuttler, Washington State University (site PI); Craig A. Field, University of Texas at El Paso (site PI); Vivian Gonzalez, University of Alaska – Anchorage (site PI); James M. Henson, Old Dominion University (site PI); Jon M. Houck, Mind Research Network; Kevin M. King, University of Washington (site PI); Benjamin O. Ladd, Washington State University (site PI); Kevin S. Montes, California State University – Dominguez Hills (site PI); Mark A. Prince, Colorado State University – Fort Collins (site PI); Maria M. Wong, Idaho State University (site PI).

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/02791072.2023.2191605.