Exploring Social Support as a Moderator between Adverse Childhood Experiences and Cannabis Use

Background: Research shows that unresolved childhood trauma can lead to an abundance of health disparities and increase the risk for problematic substance use in adulthood, particularly problematic cannabis use. Individuals who have experienced four or more adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) double their risk of problematic substance use, but research has shown that protective factors, such as social support, can buffer against this cumulative risk. Although past research has found that social support can buffer against problematic alcohol use, there is a need to understand how social support relates to ACEs and problematic cannabis use. The present study aims to identify if perceived social support moderates the association between ACEs and cannabis use. In addition to overall perceived social support, various domains of perceived social support (friends, family, and significant other support) were examined to determine whether these domains differentially impacted the association between ACEs and cannabis use. Methods: Data were collected using a university online subject pool (n = 382) from a college student sample from a mid-southern university (75% Caucasian, 78% female). The participants completed a battery of measures assessing perceived social support (i.e., the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support; MSPSS), childhood trauma (i.e., the Adverse Childhood Experiences Scale; ACEs), and the number of days of cannabis use in the past month (i.e., the Drug Use Questionnaire). Results: Moderation analyses were used to analyze if overall perceived social support and the various domains of MSPSS (family, friend, and significant other) moderated the relation between ACES and cannabis use. Findings revealed that perceived support from a significant other significantly moderated the association between ACEs and cannabis use (b = .17, p = .04) such that the relation between ACEs and cannabis use was stronger when there was higher perceived support from a significant other. Overall social support and support from friends and family members did not moderate this association. Discussion: Overall, these findings contradict the previous literature in that more support from a significant other did not buffer the association between ACEs and cannabis use. Rather, the relation between ACEs and cannabis use was strongest at higher levels of significant other support. This suggests that perceived social support may play a unique role alternative to buffering the relationship between ACEs and cannabis use. Future work is needed to examine factors such as level of cannabis use within a trauma survivor’s social network or significant other accommodation of symptoms, which may enhance perceptions of support but also encourage cannabis use.