Momentary Cannabis Craving Scale

Category	Details
Description	The Momentary Cannabis Craving Scale (Davis et al., 2025) evaluates immediate cannabis craving among emerging adults using an ecological momentary assessment (EMA) approach. The scale was adapted from related measures and refined to six items after psychometric evaluation. It encompasses factors of purposefulness/general desire to use and negative affect/emotionality.
Author	Davis, Christal N.; Gex, Kathryn S.; Squeglia, Lindsay M.; Trull, Timothy J.; McCarthy, Denis M.; Baker, Nathaniel L.; Gray, Kevin M.; McRae-Clark, Aimee L.; Tomko, Rachel L.
Purpose	Measures momentary cannabis craving in emerging adult users.
Construct	Momentary Cannabis Craving
Instrument Type	Inventory/Questionnaire
Files	No file is available for download.
Test Year	2025
Format	Items rated on a seven-point Likert scale from “Strongly disagree” to “Strongly agree.”
Number of Items	6
Factors and Subscales	Purposefulness/general desire to use; Negative affect/emotionality.
Reliability	No reliability indicated.
Validity	Adequate convergent validity demonstrated with measures of craving, cannabis use disorder symptoms, usage frequency, cue reactivity, negative affect, and impulsivity.
Factor Analysis	The best fitting model was a two within-two between-factor model, retaining six items after removing two due to statistical issues. Fit indices indicated strong model performance (e.g., RMSEA = 0.032, CFI = 0.998, TLI = 0.993).
Age Group	Adulthood (18+); Young Adulthood (18-29 yrs).
Population Group	Human; Male; Female.
Population Details	Emerging adults aged 18-21 in the United States who use cannabis at least three times per week.
Keywords	Cannabis; Craving; Ecological Momentary Assessment; Emerging Adults; Negative Affect/Emotionality; Purposefulness/General Desire to Use.
Reference	Davis, C. N., Gex, K. S., Squeglia, L. M., Trull, T. J., McCarthy, D. M., Baker, N. L., Gray, K. M., McRae-Clark, A. L., & Tomko, R. L. (2025). Development and initial validation of a momentary cannabis craving scale within a homogeneous sample of U.S. emerging adults. Assessment, 32(1), 77–89. https://doi.org/10.1177/10731911241237055

Momentary Cannabis Craving Scale

The following items constitute the Momentary Cannabis Craving Scale. It is important to note that while the original items administered to participants utilized the term “marijuana,” this language has been replaced with “cannabis” due to the term’s racist origins. The scale is comprised of the following items:

1. ‘‘It would be great to smoke cannabis right now.’’

2. ‘‘I would feel more in control of things right now if I could smoke cannabis.’’

3. ‘‘Smoking cannabis would be pleasant right now.’’

4. ‘‘I have a desire to use cannabis right now.’’

5. ‘‘If I smoked cannabis right now, I would feel less tense.’’

6. ‘‘I would feel less anxious if I smoked cannabis right now.’’

Factor Structure

The items were organized into a two-factor structure. Two items were removed due to cross-loading. Specifically, Item 6 (“I am craving cannabis right now”) and Item 8 (“Nothing would be better than using cannabis right now”) were removed as they loaded onto both factors.

• Factor 1: Purposefulness/General Craving: This factor is represented by Items 1, 3, and 4.

• Factor 2: Negative Affect/Emotionality Craving: This factor is represented by Items 2, 5, and 7.