Economic Effects of Adolescent to Adult Patterns of Cannabis Use: Full-Time Employment and Employment Stability

• NCJ Number: 255826
• Journal: Journal of Drug Issues Dated: 2020
• Author(s): Megan B. Augustyn; Thomas Loughran; Pilar Larroulet; Kimberly L Henry
• Date Published: 2020
• Length: 10 pages
• Grant Number(s): 2006-JW-BX-0074, 86-JN-CX-0007, 96-MU-FX-0014, 2004-MU-FX-0062
• Sponsoring Agency: Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP)
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Research (Applied/Empirical); Report (Study/Research); Report (Grant Sponsored); Program/Project Description
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

Since research has yet to examine stability in employment as a function of cannabis use once an individual transitions into full-time work, the current study used data from the Rochester Youth Development Study to identify trajectories of cannabis use that spanned ages 14 to 30 among a sample of predominantly minorities (approximately 80 percent; 68 percent African American).

Abstract

After hard-classifying individuals by patterns of cannabis use, probabilities of full-time employment and conditional probabilities of full-time employment were calculated and compared across patterns of use. Abstention or rare cannabis use was associated with a higher likelihood of full-time employment compared with other cannabis use patterns. Full-time employment stability was high for each pattern of cannabis use (about 89 percent) and differences decreased with age and prior periods of employment. The results indicate that patterns of cannabis use spanning adolescence to adulthood have limited impact on the ability to retain full-time employment once employed and were interpreted in the context of the expanding legalization of cannabis use. 102 references (publisher abstract modified)