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Anxiety sensitivity and hopelessness are two traits that have been previously linked to increased gaming problems. Research in the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic showed that emotionally vulnerable individuals were turning to video games as a means of coping with their distress. However, more research is needed on the longterm and enduring pathways from internalizing traits to time spent gaming during COVID-19, after the lockdowns and preventative measures had been lifted. As such, the current study employs a multi-wave longitudinal study that predicted that those participants who experience high levels of anxiety sensitivity or hopelessness would use gaming as a means to cope with their emotional discomfort, resulting in increased gaming behaviours. A sample of 1,001 American gamers (Mage = 38.43, SD = 12.11, 53.2% female) completed three surveys through Mechanical Turk, with the first occurring in July 2021, and subsequent surveys spaced three months apart. This study measured participants' baseline anxiety sensitivity and hopelessness using the Substance Use Risk Profile. At each time point, participants were asked to recall their average time spent gaming over the past month using a Timeline Follow-Back method, and answer questions related to their coping motivations for gaming using the Motives for Online Gaming Questionnaire. Coping motives consistently predicted time spent gaming at the next timepoint. Furthermore, we found evidence that high levels of anxiety sensitivity at baseline predicted greater future time spent gaming at Time 3, through greater coping motives at Time 2. Hopelessness was correlated with coping motives and time spent gaming at baseline, but did not relate to these variables across time. Anxious individuals who were gaming to cope during the COVID-19 pandemic may be at higher risk for excessive gaming. This may be particularly true for individuals who are higher in anxiety sensitivity. Future research should aim to understand how the relationships between anxiety sensitivity, coping motivations, and time spend gaming exist in the context of symptoms of gaming disorder and functional impairments that exist due to excessive gaming. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Cannabis use in young adulthood has been associated with exposure to traumatic events and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Coping motives for cannabis use represent one mechanism linking PTSD with cannabis problems, yet some individuals with PTSD consider their cannabis use to be medicinal in nature. While a medicinal orientation to cannabis overlaps conceptually with coping motives, it could be associated with unique cannabis outcomes. Objectives: This study examined trauma-related coping motives and medicinal cannabis orientation as mediators of the association between PTSD symptoms and cannabis outcomes in young adults. Method: Data came from an online survey of 212 university students (M age = 19.41; 70.3% Women; 43.4% White) who used cannabis in the past month and endorsed a traumatic life event. Path analyses examined associations of PTSD symptoms with past month cannabis frequency and problems through medicinal cannabis orientation (i.e., number of mental health symptoms that cannabis is used to manage) and trauma-related coping motives. Results: PTSD symptoms were associated with trauma-related coping motives but not with medicinal cannabis orientation. Both trauma-related coping motives and medicinal cannabis orientation were uniquely associated with greater cannabis use frequency, but only trauma-related coping motives were associated with greater cannabis problems. There were significant indirect relationships from PTSD symptoms to cannabis use frequency and problems through trauma-related coping motives but not through medicinal cannabis orientation. Conclusions: Results support unique contributions of trauma-related coping motives and medicinal cannabis orientation to cannabis outcomes and suggest that trauma-related coping motives are specifically implicated in the link between PTSD and cannabis problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and purpose Minority stressors have been linked with alcohol use among transgender and gender diverse (TGD); however, no ecological momentary assessment studies have examined daily links between minority stress and alcohol use specifically among TGD. This study examined gender minority stressors and resilience as predictors of same-day or momentary alcohol-related outcomes. Feasibility and acceptability of procedures were evaluated. Methods Twenty-five TGD adults (mean age = 32.60, SD = 10.82; 88% White) were recruited Canada-wide and participated remotely. They completed 21 days of ecological momentary assessment with daily morning and random surveys (assessing alcohol outcomes, risk processes, gender minority stressors, resilience), and an exit interview eliciting feedback. Results Gender minority stress had significant and positive within-person relationships with same-day alcohol use (incidence risk ratio (IRR) = 1.12, 95% confidence interval [CI] [1.02, 1.23]), alcohol-related harms (IRR = 1.14, 95% CI [1.02, 1.28]), and coping motives (IRR = 1.06, 95% CI [1.03, 1.08]), as well as momentary (past 30-min) alcohol craving (IRR = 1.32, 95% CI [1.18, 1.47]), coping motives (IRR = 1.35, 95% CI [1.21, 1.51]), and negative affect (IRR = 1.28, 95% CI [1.20, 1.36]). Gender minority stress indirectly predicted same-day drinking via coping motives (ab = 0.04, 95% CI [0.02, 0.08]). Resilience was positively associated with same-day alcohol use (IRR = 1.25, 95% CI [1.03, 1.51]) but not harms. Conclusions TGD adults may use alcohol to cope with gender minority stress, which can increase the risk for alcohol-related harms. Interventions are needed to eliminate gender minority stressors and support adaptive coping strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Simultaneous alcohol and cannabis use is common, but observational studies examining negative consequences of simultaneous use have rarely considered dose‐related interactions between alcohol and cannabis. This study examined interactions between quantities of cannabis and alcohol consumed in predicting negative consequences on simultaneous use days. Methods: Young adults (N = 151; 64% female; 62% White) reporting recent simultaneous use and at least weekly alcohol and cannabis use completed 21 daily, smartphone‐based surveys assessing previous day quantities of cannabis and alcohol used, types of cannabis used (flower, concentrates, edibles), and negative substance‐related consequences. Multilevel models examined: (1) whether negative consequences differed within‐person across simultaneous use days and single‐substance use days; and (2) whether quantities of alcohol and cannabis consumed on simultaneous use days interacted, within‐person, to predict negative consequences. We focused on quantities of cannabis flower (grams) in primary analyses and explored quantities of other forms of cannabis (concentrates, edibles) in supplementary analyses. Results: Participants reported fewer negative consequences on alcohol‐only (243 observations) and cannabis‐only (713 observations) days than they did on simultaneous use days (429 observations). On simultaneous use days involving cannabis flower use (313 observations across 81 participants), the within‐person association between number of standard drinks and negative consequences was weaker on days during which larger (vs. smaller) amounts of cannabis flower were consumed. Inspection of simple slopes revealed that decreased alcohol use was associated with less of a decline in negative consequences when combined with relatively greater amounts of cannabis flower. Conclusions: Although simultaneous use was associated with more negative consequences than alcohol‐only and cannabis‐only use, negative consequences on simultaneous use days varied as a function of the interaction between alcohol and cannabis quantities. As findings suggest that using larger amounts of cannabis may attenuate declines in negative consequences associated with lighter drinking, interventions for higher‐risk simultaneous use patterns may benefit from a focus on quantities of both alcohol and cannabis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Anxiety sensitivity (AS) is associated with cannabis use. People high in AS may use cannabis to cope with elevated anxiety. This association is consistently supported in the literature. However, we have much to learn about the mechanisms of the AS pathway to cannabis use. We aimed to examine negative urgency--the tendency to act impulsively when distressed--as a mediator of the association of AS with cannabis problems and cannabis dependence symptoms. We hypothesized that negative urgency would uniquely mediate the association of AS with cannabis outcomes after controlling for other facets of impulsivity. Participants and Methods: Postsecondary students (N = 91; Fall 2012) completed online self-reports. To participate, students needed to be =18 years old, enrolled in postsecondary studies, and needed to report current cannabis use. Results: Negative urgency uniquely mediated associations between AS and cannabis problems and dependence symptoms. Conclusions: Our findings suggest a mechanistic role of negative urgency in the AS pathway to cannabis misuse.