Consommation de cannabis et symptômes dépressifs à l'adolescence : le rôle modérateur de la qualité de la relation parent-adolescent
Depression is a prevailing psychopathology which often begins during adolescence. Multiple repercussions on personal, economic and social levels have been associated with this disorder. Many factors including cannabis have been identified as likely to influence the onset and development of depressive symptoms. However, there is a lack of consensus concerning the link between cannabis use and depressive symptoms in adolescence, which could result from methodological differences as the control of potential confounding variables. Among these variables, parent-adolescent relationship has been identified as a potential moderator in the relationship between cannabis use and depressive symptoms. The present research project firstly aims to examine the relationship between cannabis use and the manifestation of depressive symptoms in adolescence and, secondly to verify the potential moderating effect of parent-adolescent relationship on that link. The sample includes 1 740 Quebec teenagers followed longitudinally in high school. Multiple hierarchical regression analyses were conducted to test the hypotheses. Results indicate a weak positive relationship between cannabis use and depressive symptoms assessed two years later. Moreover, only one dimension of the parent-adolescent relationship, defined as low parental support, has been identified as having predictive power on depressive symptoms. However, the variance explained by this interaction is insufficient to be considered on a clinical level. The implications of these findings are discussed.
adolescence cannabis parent-adolescent relationship parental support parental control moderator effect