(PS1-6) Behavioral Economic Substance-free Reward Assessment and Cannabis Use and Related Problems

Young adult cannabis use has been on the rise, and with legalizations across the US, national use rates are expected to continue increasing. It is important to understand factors that may be protective against problematic use with innovative and theoretically based assessment tools. Behavioral economic research suggests reward availability and enjoyment from drug-free sources may serve as a protective factor against drug use. This study aims to evaluate the associations between cannabis use and problems, cannabis and substance-free pleasant image (i.e., beach, fireworks…etc.) valence ratings, and substance-free evening activity frequency and enjoyment ratings. Participants were 132 college students (M_age = 19.9; 54% female; 65% white) who reported 5+ days of cannabis use in the past month. Participants were recruited as part of a larger randomized clinical trial evaluating a behavioral economic intervention to reduce cannabis use. Data presented herein are baseline (pre-intervention) results. Two hierarchical multiple regression models were conducted examining associations between the relative pleasantness ratings ratio of substance-free images compared to cannabis related images (substance-free image/(substance-free image + cannabis image)), substance-free evening activity engagement and enjoyment, and cannabis use and cannabis-related problems while controlling for depression. Bivariate associations indicated significant negative associations between both pleasant image ratings and substance-free evening activity enjoyment ratings with use and problems, and evening activity engagement with use but not problems. Regression results suggest that pleasant image ratings were associated with past month cannabis use , p = .03) and problems -.18, p = .04). Whereas neither substance-free evening activity engagement and enjoyment were significantly associated with use or problems above and beyond depression. Findings suggest that greater proportionate pleasantness ratings of substance-free images (relative to substance-free and cannabis-related images) were associated with less cannabis use and problems above and beyond depression. Results suggest this novel image task as a brief and sensitive assessment of problematic cannabis use. This is the first study to examine the utility of using these novel image ratings to assess the extent of problematic cannabis use in a young adult heavy cannabis using population.