Search reports, ask a question, or jump to a page.
The problem
Intervention: Not an intervention study; this is an observational longitudinal study examining withdrawal/depression symptoms as a pathway
Who it was tested with: 2,865 US children born 1998-2000 (52.1% female; 46.6% Black, 27.3% Hispanic, 18.5% White).
Children or communities are compared with a group that did not receive the intervention, or followed over years. This is the design that best separates what the intervention did from everything else that changed.
"A parallel mediation model was tested using parent-reported cumulative and specific ACEs (age 3) as predictors, parent-reported withdrawn/depressed and anxious/depressed symptoms (CBCL; age 15) as mediators, and youth self-reported monthly marijuana use (age 22) as the outcome." This prospective longitudinal design with multiple timepoints strengthens inference about temporal sequence, though the observational nature limits causal conclusions about intervention potential.
This is an observational mediation analysis, not an intervention trial, so it cannot establish causation or test whether targeting depression would actually reduce marijuana use. The withdrawn/depressed pathway explains only 16% of the association, leaving most of the mechanism unexplained.
Across countries and designs
14 studies · 11 countries
