Abstract
BACKGROUND: This study investigates whether the association between age at first cannabis use, anxiety and depressive symptoms (modeled alone and together), and cannabis dependence varies by sex. METHOD: Cross-sectional online study with 451 U.S. young adults in 2021 who used cannabis in the past 30 days. RESULTS: In the model with both anxiety and depression, cannabis dependence was associated with anxiety symptoms only in males (p = .0001) and depressive symptoms only in females (p = .007). CONCLUSION: Modeling anxiety and depression co-occurrence provided unique insight into sex-specific associations between mental health symptoms and cannabis dependence.