Citation

Kells M, Burke PJ, Parker S, Jonestrask C, Shrier LA. J. Pediatr. Nurs. 2019; 49: 24-30.

Affiliation

Division of Adolescent/Young Adult Medicine, Boston Children's Hospital, United States of America; Department of Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School, United States of America.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.pedn.2019.08.011

PMID

31473464

Abstract

PURPOSE: To characterize information elicited from adolescent/young adults with frequent cannabis use in Motivational Enhancement Therapy (MET), and determine whether differences exist across stages of change (SOC) for reducing use. DESIGN AND METHODS: Primary care patients 15-24 years old using cannabis ≥3 times/week enrolled in a pilot randomized intervention trial. All youth were offered two 1-hour MET sessions. Content analysis was used to code and categorize main reasons for use, alternative behaviors, goals, values, pros and cons of change, and compared results between youth in Pre-Contemplation vs. Contemplation SOC.

RESULTS: Fifty-six youth completed MET session 1, 46 completed session 2. Most reported their main reason for use was related to emotional coping, negative feelings were a top-3 trigger, and distraction was an alternative way to meet their needs. Youth most frequently described progress in education or career/job as 1-year goals. More than half identified family as a very important value. They most frequently reported pros of using less related to achieving goals, self-improving, and saving money, and a con related to stress/coping. Compared to youth in Pre-Contemplation SOC, those in Contemplation were more likely to identify relationships as both a pro and con of using less cannabis.

CONCLUSIONS: MET can reveal developmentally appropriate goals, healthy values, and ambivalence about cannabis use that can be used to facilitate movement along the stages of behavior change toward reduction/cessation. PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS: Brief motivational therapy can be used in primary care to gather information important in helping youth to reduce cannabis use.

Copyright © 2019 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Language: en

Keywords

Adolescents; Cannabis; Motivational Enhancement Therapy (MET); Motivational Interviewing (MI); Young adults