Marijuana Content on Digital Media and Marijuana Use among Young People in the United States

Abstract Health behavior theory establishes that exposure to media messages about a topic influences related knowledge, attitudes, and behavior. Marijuana-related messages proliferating on digital media likely affect attitudes and behavior about marijuana. Most research studying marijuana- related media effects on behavior relies on self-reported survey measures, which are subject to bias; people find it difficult to recall timing, frequency, and sources of messages. We calculated an exogenous measure of exposure to marijuana-related messages on digital media based on emerging public