Evidence suggests that cannabis use among college students may lead to cannabis-related problems. Online personalized feedback interventions have shown to have little effectiveness in reducing risky cannabis use in this population. A current study aimed to see if men and women respond to this sort of intervention differently, and if PFIs could be useful when looked at in separate gender populations.
In this study, 204 undergraduate past-month cannabis users who had experienced at least one cannabis-related problem in the past 3 months were split into two groups to receive different interventions. One group received personalized feedback only (PNF) and the other received personalized feedback as well as information on cannabis use risk (PFI). Both groups discussed their past-month cannabis use frequency, perceived norms of use of others on campus, and information on actual norms of peer cannabis use.
The results showed that at baseline, women did not differ from men as far as use frequency or number of cannabis-related problems. However, women in the PFI group reported fewer cannabis-related problems upon follow-up compared to women in the PNF group, while the groups did not show any difference for men. The results within women show that education of peer norms only does not have a significant effect on reducing cannabis-related problems, while education on risks of use does.
Take Away: Personalized feedback interventions that include information on risk of cannabis use reduce cannabis-related problems in undergraduate women, but this impact was not seen in men.
Walukevich-Dienst, K., Neighbors, C., Buckner, J.D. (2019). Online personalized feedback intervention for cannabis-using college students reduces cannabis-related problems among women. Addictive Behaviors. doi.org/10.1016/j.addbeh.2019.106040.