A Comprehensive Examination of the Links between Cannabis Use and Motivation

Background: Cannabis use is widely perceived to produce an amotivational syndrome characterized by reduced desire to work or compete, passivity, and lower achievement orientation. The notion that cannabis diminishes motivation has been perpetuated in popular culture, despite the equivocal results of past research. Moreover, previous literature has largely failed to consider the potentially confounding influences of depression, other substance use, and personality, despite known relationships between these variables and cannabis use. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to elucidate the nature of the relationships between specific aspects of motivation and cannabis use/misuse. Moreover, we sought to determine whether depression, alcohol and other substance use, and/or personality could account for these relationships. Method: A total of 1,168 participants completed a survey comprising self-report measures of motivation (self-efficacy, apathy, goal orientation, reward-sensitivity, and behavioral inhibition/approach systems) and cannabis use/misuse (cannabis use status, cannabis use frequency, quantity, age of onset of cannabis use, symptoms of cannabis use disorder, problematic cannabis use). Results: The results revealed small (r < .30) but significant correlations between various aspects of cannabis use and motivation, which were largely accounted for by cannabis-related differences in depression, alcohol and other substance use, and personality. However, relationships between cannabis misuse and apathy remained statistically significant after controlling for confounds, indicating that individuals who misuse cannabis may demonstrate higher levels of apathy specifically. Conclusion: Collectively, these results suggest that differences in depression, substance use, and personality between cannabis users and non-users largely explain differences in motivation between these groups.