(PS1-17) I Get High With a Little Help From My Friends: The Role of Social Support in Momentary Alcohol & Cannabis Use

Abstract Text:

Introduction: Cross-sectional research has highlighted that social support can serve as a powerful buffer in the relationship of negative affect with substance use among young people. However, experience sampling research suggests that social support may also predict in-the-moment substance use, suggesting that the role of social support in recovery may be complex. This 15-day experience sampling study tested the relationship of (a) negative affect (including loneliness, stress, and negative mood) with temporally-proximal alcohol and cannabis use, and (b) social support as a potential moderator of a lagged relationship between recent negative affect and present substance use.

Methods: Momentary assessment data were drawn from 59 emerging adult cannabis users (Mage= 22.88 [SD=1.79]; 61% female; 66% Black). Multilevel models were used to test a) direct within-person associations of social support and negative affect with odds of alcohol and cannabis use over time and b) within-person interactions of social support with negative affect (lagged one moment) on odds of cannabis and alcohol use over time. All analyses controlled for sex, age, Black race, intoxication at time of survey completion, and day of week.

Results: Moment-to-moment, participants had greater odds of reporting both cannabis use (OR = 1.09, p = .037) and alcohol use (OR = 1.28, p < .001) when experiencing greater social support relative to person-average. Greater same-moment stress (OR = 0.98, p = .006) and loneliness (OR = 0.99, p = .023) were associated with lower odds of cannabis, but not alcohol use. No direct lagged associations were observed for cannabis, but greater recent negative affect was associated with higher odds of alcohol use (OR = 1.03, p = .045). For cannabis, but not for alcohol, greater in-the-moment social support (relative to person-average) was shown to buffer effects of recent loneliness, stress, and negative affect on odds of cannabis use (bs = -0.005 to – 0.006, all ps < .05).

Conclusions: While social support on its own is associated with momentary cannabis and alcohol use, it also serves as a buffer against the impact of negative affect (including loneliness, stress, and negative mood) on cannabis use. Further attention is warranted toward mechanisms by which social support may both help and harm with efforts toward improved emotion regulation alongside substance use recovery, particularly for cannabis.