Department of Psychology, Loyola Marymount University, United States.
Department of Psychology, Loyola Marymount University, United States.
Addict Behav. 2021 Aug;119:106948. doi: 10.1016/j.addbeh.2021.106948. Epub 2021 Apr 8.
Previous research suggests that exposure to alcohol-related content on social media sites (SMSs) may inflate perceptions of drinking norms, thereby increasing drinking among college students and potentially undermining popular social norms-based alcohol interventions. However, prior research on exposure has used subjective measures of alcohol exposure and has focused mostly on Facebook. The current study focused on Instagram, a popular SMS among college students, and utilized objective time tracking and newsfeed sampling methods to rigorously examine the prospective relationship between exposure to alcohol-related Instagram content (ARIC), alcohol cognitions, and drinking. Participants were 309 matriculating college students (M = 18.1, SD = 0.26; 62.1% female; 46.9% White/Caucasian; 17.5% Hispanic) who had their Instagram use tracked and newsfeeds sampled via a macro several times during the transition into college (August & September), and completed a baseline survey and two follow-up surveys. A sequential mediation model examined theoretically derived pathways between objective ARIC exposure and alcohol use. Results revealed that objective ARIC exposure during the transition to college was positively associated with drinking at the end of the first year of college, and subjective frequency of ARIC exposure mediated this relationship between objective ARIC exposure and later drinking. Subjective frequency of ARIC exposure also mediated the association between objective ARIC exposure and perceptions of descriptive norms, which, in turn, predicted later drinking. These findings illustrate that greater objective ARIC exposure during the transition into college may increase risky drinking over the first year via increased subjective frequency of ARIC and elevated perceptions of drinking norms. Priority directions for future research are discussed and several novel ways in which social norms-based interventions for first-year students may be enhanced to better combat ARIC-related influences are introduced.
先前的研究表明，社交媒体网站（SMS）上的酒精相关内容的暴露可能会夸大对饮酒规范的认知，从而增加大学生的饮酒量，并可能破坏基于流行社会规范的酒精干预措施。然而，先前关于暴露的研究使用了酒精暴露的主观测量方法，并且主要集中在 Facebook 上。本研究关注的是 Instagram，这是大学生中流行的 SMS，并利用客观的时间跟踪和新闻Feed 抽样方法，严格考察了接触酒精相关 Instagram 内容（ARIC）、酒精认知与饮酒之间的前瞻性关系。参与者为 309 名入学的大学生（M=18.1，SD=0.26；62.1%为女性；46.9%为白人/高加索人；17.5%为西班牙裔），他们的 Instagram 使用情况通过一个宏在大学过渡期间（8 月和 9 月）多次进行跟踪，并完成了基线调查和两次后续调查。一个顺序中介模型检验了客观 ARIC 暴露与饮酒之间的理论推导途径。结果表明，大学过渡期间的客观 ARIC 暴露与大学第一年结束时的饮酒量呈正相关，而主观 ARIC 暴露频率中介了客观 ARIC 暴露与后期饮酒之间的关系。主观 ARIC 暴露频率也中介了客观 ARIC 暴露与描述性规范认知之间的关联，而后者又预测了后期饮酒。这些发现表明，在大学过渡期间，更多的客观 ARIC 暴露可能会通过增加主观的 ARIC 频率和提高对饮酒规范的认知来增加第一年的高风险饮酒。讨论了未来研究的优先方向，并介绍了几种可以增强基于社会规范的一年级学生干预措施的新方法，以更好地对抗与 ARIC 相关的影响。
