1. Cross-cultural examination of college marijuana culture in five countries: Measurement invariance of the Perceived Importance of Marijuana to the College Experience Scale
- Author
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Pearson, Matthew R., Bravo, Adrián J., Sotelo, Melissa, Henson, James M., Ibáñez, Manuel I, Mezquita, Laura, Ortet, Generós, Pilatti, Angelina, Prince, Mark A., Read, Jennifer P., Roozen, Hendrik G., Ruiz, Paul, Cross‐Cultural Addictions Study Team, Henson, James M., and MRP is supported by a career development grant (K01-AA023233) from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA). AJB is supported by a training grant (T32-AA018108) from the NIAAA. Data collection was supported, in part, by grant T32-AA018108. NIAAA had no role in the study design, collection, analysis or interpretation of the data, writing the manuscript, or the decision to submit the paper for publication. Data collection in Spain was also supported by grants UJI-A2017-18 and UJI-B2017-74 from the Universitat Jaume I and grant PSI2015-67766-R from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO). Data collection in Argentina was also supported by grants from the National Secretary of Science and Technology (FONCYT, grant number #PICT 2015-849) and by grants from the Secretary of Science and Technology- National University of Córdoba (SECyT-UNC).
- Subjects
Cross-Cultural Comparison ,Male ,Universities ,education ,Psychological intervention ,Argentina ,Medicine (miscellaneous) ,Bivariate analysis ,Toxicology ,Social norms approach ,Sex Factors ,cross-cultural ,Surveys and Questionnaires ,mental disorders ,Social Norms ,Cross-cultural ,Humans ,Measurement invariance ,Students ,Netherlands ,college students ,Reproducibility of Results ,Confirmatory factor analysis ,Marijuana user ,United States ,measurement invariance ,Psychiatry and Mental health ,Clinical Psychology ,Level of measurement ,Attitude ,Spain ,college norms ,Uruguay ,Female ,Marijuana Use ,Psychology ,Factor Analysis, Statistical ,marijuana ,Clinical psychology - Abstract
This project was completed by the Cross-cultural Addictions Study Team (CAST), which includes the following investigators (in alphabetical order): Adrian J. Bravo, University of New Mexico, USA (Coordinating PI); James M. Henson, Old Dominion University, USA; Manuel I. Ibáñez, Universitat Jaume I de Castelló, Spain; Laura Mezquita, Universitat Jaume I de Castelló, Spain; Generós Ortet, Universitat Jaume I de Castelló, Spain; Matthew R. Pearson, University of New Mexico, USA; Angelina Pilatti, National University of Cordoba, Argentina; Mark A. Prince, Colorado State University, USA; Jennifer P. Read, University at Buffalo, USA; Hendrik G. Roozen, University of New Mexico, USA; Paul Ruiz, Universidad de la República, Uruguay. Marijuana internalized norms, measured by the Perceived Importance of Marijuana to the College Experience Scale (PIMCES; 8 items), has been found to be distinct from marijuana descriptive/injunctive norms and to be a unique robust predictor of marijuana-related outcomes among college students, yet the role of these beliefs has not been studied outside the U.S. Using confirmatory factor analysis, the present work examined the level of measurement invariance (i.e., configural, metric, and scalar) of the PIMCES across five different countries with distinct marijuana-related regulations (i.e., U.S., Argentina, Spain, Uruguay, and the Netherlands), sex, and marijuana user status among college students (n = 3424) recruited between September 2017 and January 2018. To make valid comparisons across groups, metric invariance is needed to compare correlations and scalar invariance is needed to compare latent means. We found strong measurement invariance (i.e., scalar invariance) for the PIMCES across countries, across males and females, and across marijuana users and non-users. College students in the U.S. reported the highest levels of marijuana internalized norms compared to college students from all other countries. As expected, males and marijuana users showed significantly higher scores on the PIMCES than females and non-users, respectively. Bivariate correlations between PIMCES scores and other marijuana-related variables were remarkably similar across males and females, though differences across countries warrant further exploration. Taken together, the degree to which college students view marijuana use to be an integral part of the college experience may be an important target for college student marijuana interventions across various countries/cultures.
- Published
- 2019
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