11:30 - 13:00
Location: G08
Chair/s:
Brian Kelly
Submission 19
Parenthood, Stigma, and Cannabis Use: A Vignette Experiment
P1-G08-04
Presented by: Brian Kelly
Brian Kelly 1, Reilly Kincaid 2, Mark Pawson 2
1 Indiana University
2 Purdue University
The United States has experienced major policy changes on cannabis use during the past decade. Public policy implementation has been shown to influence social norms, beliefs, and attitudes across the population. For cannabis, there is evidence of increasing normalization of adult use throughout the U.S., even in states where cannabis remains illegal. Yet, processes such as normalization often occur in an uneven and unequal manner, with the most advantaged people often experiencing the most immediate benefits of such processes. This study examines the persistence of stigma associated with cannabis use experienced by parents – and mothers in particular – during a period of increasing normalization. Specifically, we hypothesized that parents will be ascribed greater stigma – across several dimensions of stigma – than adults without children. Further, we hypothesize that mothers will be ascribed greater stigma than both fathers and women without children, thus suffering the greatest stigma penalty for cannabis use. Following these hypotheses, the authors developed and pre-tested vignettes and relevant measures of stigma, which included 4 dimensions: Moral Judgement, Social Distance, Stereotype, and Perceived Discrimination. For the primary study. the authors employed a vignette experiment using a within-and-between subject study design among national sample of U.S. adults. Subjects were randomized into two experimental conditions across parenthood and gender (from among 4 conditions: male parent, female parent, male non-parent, female non-parent) and one dummy condition within the vignette survey. Across these conditions, we also assessed within the vignettes the context of both legal and non-legal cannabis states (as this may be an effect modifier). Initial findings will be presented at the conference.