The Reduction of Cannabis Use and its Consequences in youths: a Psychosocial and Longitudinal Research from the Theory of Planned Behavior and Protective Strategies (PsicoCann)

Abstract

The Protective Behavioral Strategies for Marijuana scale (PBSM) was initially developed using samples of university students in USA. A community sample of Spanish young adults was recruited to provide the Spanish full-length and short versions of the Protective Behavioral Strategies for Cannabis use (S-PBSC; S-PBSC-SF). We followed a rigorous item-selection process to select the most relevant items from the original 50-item pool developed by Pedersen et al. (2016), on the basis of evidence of reliability, evidence of validity according to the internal structure (factor loadings, invariance across genders and university status, and differential item functioning [DIF]), and evidence of validity based on the relationships between S-PBSC scores and cannabis outcomes. Our findings support a 31-item unidimensional measure and a 13-item short form with excellent fit and internal consistency, invariant across genders and college status and free of DIF. Both the S-PBSC and S-PBSC-SF scores were associated with reduced cannabis use and consequences.