Development and Initial Psychometric Properties of the Cannabidiol Outcome Expectancies Questionnaire (CBD-OEQ)

Cannabidiol (CBD), a nonpsychoactive cannabinoid, is used by many individuals to treat medical and mental health conditions, despite limited support for the efficacy of CBD for these conditions. Identification of CBD-related outcome expectancies (i.e., beliefs concerning the anticipated effects of CBD) could be useful in understanding the etiology and maintenance of CBD use and/or be useful in administration or clinical trial research. Although there are several measures of cannabis outcome expectancies, cannabis comprises several active compounds (e.g., tetrahydrocannabinol [THC], CBD). Thus, cannabis outcome expectancies may not reflect CBD-specific outcome expectancies. Yet, no known CBD-specific outcome expectancy measure exists. The present study used a three-phase, mixed-methods approach to develop and test the psychometric properties of the Cannabidiol Outcome Expectancy Questionnaire (CBD-OEQ). The CBD-OEQ assessed endorsement (i.e., how much an individual agrees/disagrees with an expected outcome) and desirability ratings (i.e., how desirable an expected outcome is). The initial item pool was administered to 600 adults who endorsed having heard of or using CBD products. Factor analyses supported a 60-item, six-factor structure. There was an initial support for internal consistency and convergent, discriminant, and incremental validity of the CBD-OEQ subscale scores in the present sample. Desirability ratings explained minimal additional variance in CBD variables for most subscales, but moderated the relationship between endorsement ratings and use behaviors for Global Negative Effects and No Effect subscales. The newly developed CBD-OEQ could be used as both a research and a clinical tool.