Identifying themes of protective behavioral strategies for marijuana use with structural topic modeling

Increasing rates of marijuana use, especially in college students, can lead to unwanted use consequences that vary in severity. Marijuana protective behavioral strategies (MPBS) are harm reduction-based behaviors for minimizing use and undesirable use outcomes. While the use of MPBS is negatively associated with marijuana use metrics and related consequences, the relationship is complex, as use metrics, use outcomes, and MPBS seem to vary among individuals living within different cultural contexts. The present study sought to compare how participants living in different countries conceptualize and describe their use of MPBS.

We used structural topic modeling to analyze a collection of write-in responses from participants in the United States and Argentina describing self-generated MPBS.

Our results indicate that there is thematic overlap in the models related to self-efficacy, but that this theme was more generalized in the American model. We also observed topics that were unique to each model. In the Argentinian data set, strategies for enhancing one's use context emerged as a distinct topic (i.e., planned use), whereas topics centering on methods of distracting oneself and prioritizing other tasks were specific to the American model (i.e., distraction and prioritization).

These observations suggest culturally specific refinements are warranted for existing MPBS measurements and could be useful for developing more robust harm reduction interventions. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).