According to a new study, which was published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, says that the children of mothers who use marijuana are likely to try it themselves at a younger age.
The study observes how a mom’s cannabis use affects the age at which her children first try it.
The researchers analyzed two large-scale national surveys conducted by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The first survey was originally given to young women ages 14 to 21 between 1980 and 1998 while the second was given to the children of those women every year between 1988 and 2014.
The surveys asked questions like “How old were you when you first used marijuana?”
According to the study, mothers who used cannabis during the first 12 years of their child’s life had children that began using cannabis earlier, even if the mother’s use of the substance was less than a year. The child was still 36% more likely to try marijuana compared to children of mothers who did not ever use it.
Lead author of the study, Dr. Natasha A. Sokol, a social epidemiologist at Brown University, said to ABC News that that there is some evidence that connects the legalization of marijuana with increased frequency of parent marijuana use.
“We’ve seen this relationship mimicked in tobacco use,” Dr. Sokol remarked.
“Parents tend to be the most influential people in a child’s life,” said Dr. Sokol. “The potential changes in social norms may be linked to this early initiation seen in children.”
