Given the escalating rates of cannabis use and CUD among AAs and the greater likelihood of exposure to childhood maltreatment in AAs relative to EAs, studies that focus on racial/ethnic similarities and differences in the nature of the association between cannabis involvement and childhood maltreatment are necessary. One aspect of this research that has been notably overlooked is the extent to which common familial influences might contribute to any observed associations. Childhood maltreatment frequently occurs in the context of familial risk factors, such as parental conflict or separation (Bidarra et al., 2016; Hindley et al., 2006) and parental alcohol problems (McLaughlin et al., 2000; Shin et al., 2009), which are also associated with early initiation of marijuana use (Waldron et al., 2014a; Waldron et al., 2014b) and CUD (Melchior et al., 2011; Schiff et al., 2014). Furthermore, there is evidence that experiences of childhood maltreatment cluster within pairs of identical and fraternal twins that are raised together (Schulz-Heik et al., 2010; Young-Wolff et al., 2011), although the extent to which these familial factors are environmental or genetic has not been
