9-19-2024 4:57pm

Federal Study Suggests that Legalizing Cannabis Has a Positive Impact’ On Child Development By Increasing Parenting Time

Chris Edwards Editor

Can access to medical marijuana improve parenting?

A recently released study examines the consequences of state-level medical marijuana legalization (MML) on parents' time use

Medical marijuana may increase parenting time by improving parents' health but only if parents do not abuse marijuana.

The study finds that MML increases parenting time, with bigger impacts for those less likely to abuse marijuana. The effects correspond to 12.56% of the gap in active childcare and 8.92% of the gap in passive childcare by parents' education level. MML also reduces inactive time and increases sleep, consistent with medical marijuana's health benefits.Few studies have examined the associations between parental relationship quality and trajectories of marijuana use over time.

A federal study with results recently released investigates how parental relationship qualities may be associated with marijuana use outcomes, as well as marijuana use trajectories. This research is important because it increases the understanding of how different parent factors are related to the development of marijuana use. Several parenting skills are examined: (a) family cohesion, (b) parent knowledge of substance use, and (c) frequency of parent–child communication, and (d) quality of parent-child communication.

The study suggests that access to medical marijuana may increase the amount of parenting that people engage in by improving patients’ health reports the MarijuanaMinute.net

Medical marijuana legalization (MML) “reduces inactive time and increases sleep, consistent with medical marijuana’s health benefits” the report, published this month in the Journal of Applied Economics, says.

The federally funded study on cannabis use and parenting finds that parents typically don’t consume marijuana while their kids are present. Those who used cannabis, however, were also significantly likely to report positive parenting behaviors in the same timeframe that they consumed the drug as reported by MarijuanaMoment.net

But the relationship between marijuana and parenting is a nuanced one, wrote authors from the University of Tennessee, Ohio State University and San Jose State University, and appears to also rely heavily on who else is present at the time.

Overall, the findings “reveal a complicated relationship between cannabis use and parenting among a sample of cannabis users,” authors wrote. But the results nevertheless provide “some information on ways parents can engage in harm reduction to support positive parenting.”

Some interesting points of the study and conclusions were that:

Marijuana can provide medical benefits for those suffering from chronic pain, sleep disorder, depression, and PTSD, allowing parents to better interact with their children,” the report says, though it adds that “positive effects are not guaranteed.”

Men appeared to increase parenting time after legalization more than women, which authors noted was consistent with earlier research indicating men increase cannabis use more after medical marijuana legalization than do women.

Notably, the observed effect was also greater in more religious states, as defined by the number of church members and religious adherents.

The research drew on data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’s American Time Use Survey (ATUS) between 2003 and 2019. The survey asks respondents to fill out daily time diaries in 15-minute increments.

“Taken together,” the study says, “the results suggest that parents were able to increase parenting time by reducing inefficient time uses, without reducing time spent on other productive activities.”

Results of tbe Study: Parents rarely used cannabis with their children present. Parents had greater odds of using positive parenting during the same and subsequent time periods when using cannabis. The relationship of the parent to individuals who were present during the cannabis use was related to the use of positive and aggressive parenting

Conclusions: The findings reveal a complicated relationship between cannabis use and parenting among a sample of cannabis users. However, it also provides some information on ways parents can engage in harm reduction to support positive parenting.