Department of Health Behavior and Health Systems, School of Public Health, University of North Texas Health Science Center, Fort Worth, Texas.
Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, School of Public Health, University of North Texas Health Science Center, Fort Worth, Texas.
J Stud Alcohol Drugs. 2023 Sep;84(5):700-709. doi: 10.15288/jsad.23-00061. Epub 2023 Jun 9.
Experimental research has demonstrated that when alcohol-related content is viewed on social media, adolescents and young adults tend to have favorable attitudes toward alcohol use. However, limited research focuses on social media norms for abstaining from alcohol use. The current study examined the role of descriptive and injunctive alcohol-abstaining-and-drinking norms via experimentally manipulated social media profiles. Experimental effects on descriptive and injunctive normative perceptions and subsequent behavior were tested.
Participants ( = 306; ages 15-20 years) were recruited from the Seattle metropolitan area to complete a baseline survey and view researcher-fabricated social media profiles. Using stratified random assignment (birth sex and age), participants were randomized into one of three conditions: (a) alcohol abstaining and drinking, (b) alcohol abstaining, and (c) attention control.
The alcohol-abstaining-and-drinking condition reported greater drinking descriptive norms compared with participants in either the alcohol-abstaining or the attention-control conditions at post-experiment and 1-month follow-up. The alcohol-abstaining-and-drinking condition reported lower abstaining descriptive norms (i.e., perceiving fewer peers abstain) compared with those in the alcohol-abstaining condition at post-experiment and lower abstaining injunctive norms compared with those in the attention-control condition at 1-month follow-up.
Exposure to social media profiles containing both alcohol-drinking and alcohol-abstaining messages was respectively associated with individuals perceiving that peers were consuming alcohol more often and that fewer peers were abstaining. The present findings are consistent with prior experimental research that indicates alcohol displays on social media are associated with riskier drinking cognitions.
实验研究表明，当青少年和年轻人在社交媒体上看到与酒精相关的内容时，他们往往对饮酒持赞成态度。然而，很少有研究关注与酒精使用有关的社交媒体规范。本研究通过实验性地操纵社交媒体档案，考察了描述性和指令性戒酒和饮酒规范的作用。测试了实验对描述性和指令性规范感知以及随后行为的影响。
从西雅图大都市区招募了 306 名参与者（年龄 15-20 岁），以完成基线调查并查看研究人员制作的社交媒体档案。使用分层随机分配（出生性别和年龄），参与者被随机分配到以下三个条件之一：（a）戒酒和饮酒，（b）戒酒，和（c）注意力控制。
与戒酒或注意力控制条件相比，戒酒和饮酒条件在实验后和 1 个月随访时报告了更多的饮酒描述性规范。与戒酒条件相比，戒酒和饮酒条件在实验后报告了更低的戒酒描述性规范（即，感知到较少的同龄人戒酒），与注意力控制条件相比，在 1 个月随访时报告了更低的戒酒指令性规范。
接触包含饮酒和戒酒信息的社交媒体档案分别与个体感知到同伴饮酒更频繁和同伴中较少人戒酒的认知有关。本研究结果与先前的实验研究一致，表明社交媒体上的酒精展示与更危险的饮酒认知有关。
