I use longitudinal data to research the causes of adolescent drug use, and how that links to mental health.

Sir Henry Wellcome Postdoctoral Fellowship - Frequent Adolescent Cannabis Use (FACE): Antecedents and Outcomes

Across the world, cannabis is increasingly available as a legal drug, and we can expect use amongst adolescents to increase. Frequent cannabis use at this age increases the likelihood of health harms, including depression and anxiety in adulthood. This project uses interview data collected at multiple times in participants’ lives, from childhood onwards, in order to understand what causes frequent use of cannabis in adolescence, and what the relationship is between adolescent cannabis use and adult mental health.

This project explores the extent to which early life stress can be said to cause frequent adolescent cannabis use, and how much this relationship is due to the early-adolescent behaviour and mental health of frequent users. It then considers the relationship between frequent adolescent cannabis use and depression/anxiety, exploring the extent to which an association between these is due to low employment, drug use and heavy alcohol use in the years following early adolescence.