The Perceived Importance of Marijuana to the College Experience Scale (PIMCES) is a tool that has been found to be a strong predictor of normative perceptions and marijuana related outcomes in the U.S. among college students, but has not been studied in other countries. A recent study conducted the PIMCES in college students in the U.S., Argentina, Spain, Uruguay, and the Netherlands.

In this study the goals were to determine if the PIMCES can be used accurately in distinct countries, across males and females, and across users and nonusers. Also, the researchers wanted to determine the degree to which the association between marijuana norms and outcomes vary between countries.

The results of this study followed previous research and showed that across all 5 countries, females reported less use than males and lower PIMCES scores regarding marijuana use as a norm. Not surprisingly, marijuana users reported higher PIMCES scores than non-users.  Students in the U.S. reported significantly higher scores than the other 4 countries meaning marijuana use is seen as a norm and a part of the college experience. The PIMCES was found to be valid among all of the different countries, as well as within opposite genders and user status.

Take Away: The Perceived Important of Marijuana to the College Experience Scale is useful in predicting marijuana related norms in college students across cultures, genders, and user status. College students in the U.S. have significantly higher scores compared to students in a variety of other countries.

Pearson, M.R., Bravo, A.J., Sotelo, M. (2019). Cross-cultural examination of college marijuana culture in five countries: Measurement invariance of the Perceived Importance of Marijuana to the College Experience Scale. Addictive Behaviors. doi.org/10.016/j.addbeh.2019.04.004