The present investigation examined whether coping-oriented motives to use marijuana, as measured by the Marijuana Motives
Measure (MMM; Simons et al. in J. Couns. Psychol. 45:265–273, 1998), were uniquely related to affect-based psychological vulnerability
factors among marijuana users. Participants were 131 adult current marijuana users (72 women,
M
age = 20.14, SD = 3.37 years). As hypothesized, after controlling for gender, cigarettes smoked per day, past 30-day marijuana
use, total years of marijuana use, and alcohol consumption, coping motives were significantly and incrementally related to
negative affect-based psychological vulnerability factors. No other marijuana use motives demonstrated a similar type of relationship
to the dependent variables, providing a high degree of explanatory specificity. These data suggest that coping-oriented motives
to use marijuana may be an important explanatory construct in better understanding marijuana and psychological vulnerability
relations.
Keywords Coping - Marijuana use motives - Affect - Psychological vulnerability - Cannabis