Behavior disorders (addiction, eating disorders) which the teenagers suffer would come from a dysfunction from the early relations and an installation of mental representations of the attachment relations marked by insecurity, discontinuity and Separation Anxiety (SA). Quality of the early and current relations of attachment is going to influence the process of adolescence, which is connected to a second period of separation-individuation. Nevertheless, the SA of the adolescents remains a very rare and unknown diagnosis.

This study evaluated the relationship between cannabis abuse or dependence (A/D) and family functioning in adolescent cannabis users.

A sample of 336 adolescents filed up the questionnaires about frequency of their cannabis use, SA symptoms in adult populations, dysfunctional separation-individuation process in early adolescents, parental types perceived by the children and depression symptoms.

Cannabis A/D adolescents got significantly higher scores than non-cannabis A/D adolescents at the Anxiety Separation Adulthood (p < 0,005) and lower scores at the “care” subscale about parents representations (“mother” p < 0,01; “father” p < 0,001). The logistic regression analysis highlighted that SA disorders and care were significantly encouraging cannabis A/D.

The cannabis use would be a solution hindering the SA disorder's unbearable feeling. If a successful separationindividuation allows autonomy, the results have shown that cannabis would dress the individuation problem. Thanks to the substance the adolescent can express his personality and differentiate himself from the others by a marginal behavior.