Youth Built a Systems Model Showing How Relationship Stress Fuels Cannabis Use

The causal loop diagram generated by youth featured 14 feedback loops across three domains: within-relationship behaviors, factors proximal to marijuana use, and influences on the partner pool. Stress and dysfunctional relationship behaviors fed back to magnify relationship problems and fuel cannabis use in reinforcing cycles.

Group model building, a systems science approach, with two independent groups of youth aged 15-20 recruited from clinic and community settings. Each group participated in four 2-hour structured workshops to build causal loop diagrams representing their mental models of how social dynamics influence cannabis use.

Prevention programs typically address cannabis use in isolation. This youth-generated systems model reveals how relationship dynamics, stress, and cannabis use are interconnected in reinforcing loops, suggesting that interventions targeting relationship skills could also reduce cannabis use.

Engaging youth in systems thinking about their own substance use provides insights that adult-designed surveys often miss. The finding that relationship dysfunction and cannabis use feed each other suggests that comprehensive prevention programs addressing both issues simultaneously may be more effective.

Causal loop diagrams represent participants' mental models, not empirically validated causal pathways. Small, convenience sample from one geographic area. The model has not been tested with quantitative data.