Our finding that childhood maltreatment is associated with elevated risk for early initiation of cannabis is consistent with previous research (e.g., Bensley et al., 1999; Harrison et al., 1997; Nelson et al., 2006; Sartor et al., 2015; Werner et al., 2016), including the little research assessing AAs specifically - which, to our knowledge, is limited to prior work by our group that included participants in the current study (Sartor et al., 2015; Werner et al., 2016). The specificity of risk conferred by childhood maltreatment to early initiation in AAs but to more global risk for cannabis initiation at any age in EAs is consistent with our prior studies examining sexual abuse (Sartor et al., 2015; Werner et al., 2016), but contrasts with Werner et al.’s (2016) finding that physical abuse, when examined independently of sexual abuse, was associated with initiation only among EAs.
