Motivational Factors and Cannabis Use Intention among Juvenile Offenders: Direct, Mediating, and Moderating Effects
European Journal of Psychology Applied to Legal Context, ISSN: 1989-4007, Vol: 17, Issue: 1, Page: 39-47
2025
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Example: if you select the 1-year option for an article published in 2019 and a metric category shows 90%, that means that the article or review is performing better than 90% of the other articles/reviews published in that journal in 2019. If you select the 3-year option for the same article published in 2019 and the metric category shows 90%, that means that the article or review is performing better than 90% of the other articles/reviews published in that journal in 2019, 2018 and 2017.
Citation Benchmarking is provided by Scopus and SciVal and is different from the metrics context provided by PlumX Metrics.
Article Description
Background/Aim: Ensuring that juvenile offenders (JOs) who stop consume cannabis during their detention remain abstinence after their sentence has been served is a fundamental preventive measure. The present study explores whether the variables of the motivational phase of the Health Action Process Approach (HAPA) predicted the intention not to use cannabis after the end of the detention period among JOs. It also analyzes the mediating effect of past behavior and the moderating effect of gender. Method: A cross-sectional study was conducted with 103 JOs in detention centers in southern Spain (mean age =16.33 years, 70.6% male). Results: A multiple linear regression analysis confirmed the joint effect of motivational variables (risk perceptions, positive and negative outcome expectancies, and action self-efficacy) on intention. Except for positive outcome expectancies, all motivational variables were found to mediate the effect of age at onset on intention. Moderation analysis revealed that when risk perceptions and action self-efficacy were high, female JOs expressed a stronger intention not to use cannabis than their male counterparts. Conclusions: The results confirm the effectiveness of the HAPA for predicting the intention not to use cannabis among JOs after the end of their detention period. The present study lays the groundwork for future research, which should broaden the analysis to include the volitional stage of change and JOs serving other sentences involving less supervision and greater opportunities to use. The results presented here will help inform the design of preventive programs, with a gender perspective.
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