Van Woudenberg Thabo J, Bevelander Kirsten E, Burk William J, Smit Crystal R, Buijs Laura, Buijzen Moniek
Behavioural Science Institute, Radboud University, Nijmegen, Netherlands.
Radboud Institute for Health Sciences, Primary and Community Care, Radboud University and Medical Centre, Nijmegen, Netherlands.
Front Psychol. 2020 Jan 10;10:2913. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02913. eCollection 2019.
There is a need to stimulate physical activity among adolescents, but unfortunately, they are hard to reach with traditional mass media interventions. A promising alternative is to carry out social network interventions. In social network interventions, a small group of individuals () is selected to promote health-related behaviors within their social network. This study investigates whether a social network intervention is more effective to promote physical activity, compared to a mass media intervention and no intervention. Adolescents ( = 446; = 11.35, = 1.34; 47% male) were randomly allocated by classroom ( = 26, in 11 schools) to one of three conditions: social network intervention, mass media intervention, or control condition. In the social network intervention, 15% of the participants (based on peer nominations) was approached to become an influence agent, who created vlogs about physical activity that were shown during the intervention. In the mass media intervention, participants were exposed to vlogs made by unfamiliar peers (i.e., vlogs of the social network intervention). The control condition did not receive vlogs about physical activity. All participants received a research smartphone to complete questionnaires and a wrist-worn accelerometer to measure physical activity. The trial was registered in the Dutch Trial Registry (NTR6903). There were no differences in objectively measured physical activity between this social network intervention and the control condition in the short-term, but there was an unexpected increase in the control condition compared to the social network intervention in the long-term. No differences between the social network intervention and mass media intervention were observed. The current study does not provide evidence that this social network intervention is effective in increasing physical activity in adolescents. Exploratory analyses suggest that this social network intervention increased the perceived social norm toward physical activity and responses to the vlogs were more positive in the social network intervention than in the mass media intervention. These initial results warrant further research to investigate the role of the social norms and the added benefit of using influence agents for social network interventions. https://www.trialregister.nl/, identifier NTR6903.
有必要激励青少年进行体育活动，但遗憾的是，传统的大众媒体干预方式很难触及到他们。一个有前景的替代方法是开展社交网络干预。在社交网络干预中，会挑选一小部分人（）在其社交网络中促进与健康相关的行为。本研究调查与大众媒体干预和无干预相比，社交网络干预在促进体育活动方面是否更有效。青少年（ = 446； = 11.35， = 1.34；47%为男性）按班级（ = 26，来自11所学校）随机分配到三种条件之一：社交网络干预、大众媒体干预或对照条件。在社交网络干预中，15%的参与者（基于同伴提名）被邀请成为影响者，他们制作关于体育活动的视频博客，在干预期间播放。在大众媒体干预中，参与者观看由不熟悉的同伴制作的视频博客（即社交网络干预中的视频博客）。对照条件组未收到关于体育活动的视频博客。所有参与者都收到一部用于完成问卷调查的研究智能手机和一个用于测量体育活动的腕戴式加速度计。该试验已在荷兰试验注册中心注册（NTR6903）。短期内，社交网络干预与对照条件在客观测量的体育活动方面没有差异，但从长期来看，对照条件组与社交网络干预相比出现了意外增加。社交网络干预与大众媒体干预之间未观察到差异。当前研究没有提供证据表明这种社交网络干预能有效增加青少年的体育活动。探索性分析表明，这种社交网络干预增加了对体育活动的感知社会规范，并且社交网络干预中对视频博客的反应比大众媒体干预中更积极。这些初步结果值得进一步研究，以调查社会规范的作用以及在社交网络干预中使用影响者的额外益处。https://www.trialregister.nl/，标识符NTR6903 。
