Being young involves quite a bit of exciting change. There's the end of high-school, the start of college and some measure of independence, and a whole slew of new experiences.
A recent study conducted by Judith Brooks at NYU School of Medicine has revealed that one of those experiences, smoking marijuana (weed) may be associated with more relationship conflict later in life. What's amazing about this study is that the drug use here occurred earlier in life for most of the 534 participants, while the relationship trouble was assessed around their mid- to late-twenties.
Could other factors explain this finding?!
Now you may be thinking to yourself that there are a whole lot of other aspects of a person's life that can affect their relationship quality and their probability of smoking weed in adolescence. You'd be right, but here's what the researchers in this study ruled out as possible confounds (the scientific name for variables that obscure findings):
- Relationship with parents
- Aggressive tendencies
- adjustment difficulty
- gender
- education
Even after controlling for all of these things, smoking marijuana as a teen still predicted having less harmonious relationships later on in life.
