Negative marijuana-related consequences among college students in five countries: Measurement invariance of the Brief Marijuana Consequences Questionnaire

BRAVO, ADRIAN J.; PEARSON, MATTHEW R.; PILATTI, ANGELINA; MEZQUITA, LAURA

Addiction

Wiley Online Library

Año: 2019

BACKGROUND AND AIMS:The 21-item Brief-Marijuana Consequences Questionnaire (B-MACQ) has been shown to be a valid measure to assess negative marijuana-related consequences among U.S. college students. The present study aimed to: (a) examine measurement invariance of the B-MACQ across college student marijuana users in five countries, (b) evaluate latent mean differences on the B-MACQ as a function of sex and country if invariance is met, and (c) compare criterion-related validity across different countries and sex.DESIGN:Online survey.SETTING:Argentina, Netherlands, Spain, Uruguay, and USA.PARTICIPANTS:A subsample of last-month marijuana users who completed the B-MACQ (n=1,145; 62.9% female).MEASUREMENTS:The B-MACQ, several dimensions of marijuana use, and perceptions of marijuana use.FINDINGS:Results supported configural and scalar invariance (all ΔCFI/TLI≤.01; ΔRMSEA≤.015) of a 20-item B-MACQ across sex and four countries (Netherlands being the exception). In examining latent mean differences, Spanish students reported a higher number of consequences than U. S (p