The Role of Savoring in Young Adult Cannabis Use and Associated Consequences: A Replication Study.

Young adults exhibit high rates of cannabis use and are at heightened risk of experiencing negative cannabis-associated consequences. The purpose of the present study was to replicate and extend to prior work on savoring, the ability to experience positive experiences/emotions, and cannabis use frequency on cannabis-associated consequences. Young adults (18-25 years old, N  = 122, 36.1% women) who reported weekly cannabis use completed self-report surveys. Savoring was significantly associated with cannabis use frequency ( r  = .28, p  < .01) and cannabis-associated consequences ( r  = -.20, p  < .05). Cannabis use frequency was significantly and negatively associated with cannabis-associated consequences ( r  = -.24, p  < .01). However, the interaction between cannabis use frequency and savoring on cannabis-associated consequences was not significant ( b  = 0.0004, p  = .91, 95% CI [-0.007, 0.008]). When the interaction was removed, neither cannabis use frequency ( b  = -0.14, p  = .08, CI [-0.29, -0.02]) nor savoring ( b  = -0.05, p  = .16, CI [-0.13, 0.02]) were associated with cannabis-associated consequences. Results did not replicate previous findings regarding the moderating role of savoring in the relationship between cannabis use frequency and cannabis-associated consequences. Future research may explore why findings did not replicate by using more fine-grained assessment methods and comprehensive measures of cannabis use.