Efficiently Quantifying Egocentric Social Network Cannabis Use: Initial Psychometric Validation of the Brief Cannabis Social Density Assessment.

Objective: Social environment is a key determinant of substance use, but cannabis-related social network analysis is not common, in part because of the assessment burden of comprehensive egocentric social network analysis.

Method: The current pre-registered secondary analysis assessed the psychometric properties (i.e., convergent, criterion-related, incremental validity) of the Brief Cannabis Social Density Assessment (B-CaSDA) in a cross-sectional sample of adults who use cannabis (N = 310) using a survey-based design. The B-CaSDA assesses the quantity and frequency of cannabis use for the respondent's four closest (nonparent) relationships.

Results: Ego cannabis use severity was elevated for each additional person who used cannabis at all or daily in the individual's social network. B-CaSDA indices (i.e., frequency, quantity, total score) were positively correlated with cannabis consumption, cannabis use severity indicators, and established risk factors for harmful cannabis use. B-CaSDA indices also discriminated between those above and below a clinical cutoff on the Cannabis Use Disorder Identification Test-Revised (CUDIT-R). Finally, in omnibus models that included common risk factors for cannabis use severity, the B-CaSDA quantity index contributed additional variance when predicting CUDIT-R total score, and B-CaSDA frequency contributed additional variance in predicting the CUDIT-R quantity-frequency subscale.

Conclusions: The results suggest that the B-CaSDA has the potential to expand social network research on cannabis use and misuse by increasing its assessment feasibility in diverse designs.