ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychiatry
Sec. Perinatal Psychiatry
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2025.1641467
This article is part of the Research TopicPerinatal Substance Use and Maternal Mental HealthView all 6 articles
Willingness of pregnant and postpartum women who use marijuana and/or cannabidiol to participate with their offspring in long-term cohort studies: an exploratory study
Provisionally accepted
- University of Florida, Gainesville, United States
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Background: Prevalence of marijuana and cannabinoid use is increasing among reproductive-age women. There are uncertainties regarding long-term impacts of marijuana and/or cannabinoid exposure among pregnant women and their offspring. Longitudinal cohort studies of marijuana and/or cannabinoid exposed mother-infant dyads is the best way to ascertain the long-term impacts. However, previous studies have shown enrollment, and long-term retention are challenging in substance-exposed women. Objectives: This study explores the willingness of pregnant and postpartum women who use marijuana and/or cannabidiol to participate with their offspring in long-term cohort studies. Methods: We conducted 4 focus group discussions and one individual one-on-one interview with a total of 17 pregnant or postpartum women using an IRB approved interview guide. All interviews were audiotaped, transcribed and analyzed using the computer assisted qualitative data analysis software Atlas tiTM . We used a deductive content analysis approach and utilized consensus coding procedures. Results: Marijuana and/ or cannabinoid-exposed pregnant women are willing to participate in long-term research studies with their babies if they can build a trusting relationship with the research staff and are confident of their anonymity, as protection from negative consequences was a key concern. They would also like to understand in detail what type of data are collected, when and who all will see it and what will be done with the data before they provide the consent. All participants agreed that incentives are important and had various suggestions regarding the type and frequency of incentivization. Conclusion: The concerns and needs of marijuana and/or cannabinoid-exposed pregnant women recruited for research should be considered carefully in designing study protocols.
Keywords: marijuana, Cannabinoids, perinatal, long-term cohort studies, Participation
Received: 05 Jun 2025; Accepted: 18 Sep 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Varma, Goodin, Goldberger and Roussos-Ross. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Deepthi S Varma, dvarma@ufl.edu
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