‘See it doesn’t look pretty does it?’ Young adults’ airbrushed drinking practices on Facebook

Subjective norms as a mediator between exposure to online alcohol and marijuana content and offline use among adolescents

INTRODUCTION

While adolescent substance use (SU) may be viewed as normative, SU can quickly escalate leading to consequences. Social media use may increase SU risk. Despite using social media to connect with others, adolescents also view depictions of glamorised SU by both peers and influential figures. Exposure to online alcohol and marijuana content may impact subjective norms (i.e., injunctive and descriptive) ultimately leading to increased offline SU. Data from a multi-wave project was collected to assess whether subjective norms-mediated associations between exposure to alcohol and marijuana content by peers and influential figures on Instagram and Snapchat and offline SU.

METHODS

At Wave 1, participants were 264 adolescents (Mage  = 14.91, 51% female, 86% White, 85% Hispanic/Latino/a/x).

RESULTS

Injunctive norms significantly mediated associations between exposure to alcohol content posted by peers and influential figures on Instagram and Snapchat and offline alcohol use. Injunctive norms significantly mediated associations between exposure to marijuana content posted by peers and influential figures on Instagram, and peers on Snapchat and offline marijuana use. Descriptive norms significantly mediated associations between exposure to alcohol content posted by peers on Instagram, as well as peers and influential figures on Snapchat and offline alcohol use.

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION

Increased exposure to online SU content was more consistently associated with injunctive norms rather than descriptive norms. Future research should examine which social media features (e.g., the like button) contribute to increased subjective norms. Overall, findings suggest that social media may strongly convey approval of SU behaviours rather than actual use.

Dealing with Alcohol-Related Posts on Social Media: Using a Mixed-Method Approach to Understand Young Peoples' Problem Awareness and Evaluations of Intervention Ideas

Young individuals frequently share and encounter alcohol-related content (i.e., alcohol posts) on social networking sites. The prevalence of these posts is problematic because both the sharing of and exposure to these posts can increase young individuals' alcohol (mis)use. Consequently, it is essential to develop effective intervention strategies that hinder young individuals from sharing these posts. This study aimed to develop such intervention strategies by following four steps: (1) assessing young individuals' problem awareness of alcohol posts, (2) unraveling individuals' own intervention ideas to tackle the problem of alcohol posts, (3) examining their evaluations of theory/empirical-based intervention ideas, and (4) exploring individual differences in both problem awareness and intervention evaluations. To reach these aims, a mixed-method study (i.e., focus-group interviews and surveys) among Dutch high-school and college students (N_total = 292, Age_range = 16-28 years) was conducted. According to the results, most youth did not consider alcohol posts to be a problem and were, therefore, in favor of using automated warning messages to raise awareness. However, these messages might not work for every individual, as group differences in problem awareness and intervention evaluations exist. Overall, this study puts forward potential intervention ideas to reduce alcohol posts in digital spheres and can therefore serve as a steppingstone to test the actual effects of the ideas.

Self-Reported versus Actual Alcohol-Related Communication on Instagram: Exploring the Gap

Numerous studies have highlighted the relation between drinking behavior and alcohol references on social media. However, most studies on substance-use-related social media effects rely on self-report data, and it remains unclear whether individuals can accurately report their online alcohol-related communication. This study contributes to this line of research by examining whether individuals accurately report their alcohol-related self-sharing behavior on social media and what factors contribute to a misestimation of this behavior. A sample of 149 Belgian college students (64.3% females, M_age = 21.33, SD = 1.49) participated in this study, who were asked survey questions on their general and alcohol-related social media use. In addition, all posts they shared on their Instagram profiles between April 1^st, 2019, and March 31^st, 2020, were captured and coded. The results indicated a positive association between the counted and self-reported frequencies of sharing alcohol posts on Instagram. However, most participants overestimated how often they shared this content. The perceived injunctive norms and sharing alcohol posts for entertainment motives were the only significant predictors of this overestimation. We conclude that this overestimation may be a result of subtle social desirability processes and a misremembrance of what has been shared.

"Keeping your composure": A digital ethnography of gendered alcohol norms on Instagram

BACKGROUND

The increase in alcohol consumption among young women has been the most striking change in drinking culture in Spain in recent years. This study sets out to examine how images and stories about alcohol consumption are presented on Instagram, the strategies for constructing them, and the impact of social norms, including gender norms, on the strategies of making alcohol consumption visible.

METHODS

We have carried out a digital ethnography study in which different research techniques have been applied. We held 13 discussion groups, conducted a three-month period of observation on Instagram, and 38 in-depth interviews of young Spanish men and women between the ages of 15 and 24 (N = 118).

RESULTS

The representation of alcohol consumption on Instagram by young people shows fashionable party spaces for shared disinhibition, fun and youth gatherings. This social network permits different types of alcohol advertising and promotion of the image associated with its consumption, and is thus a space that brands and influencers exploit. Young people avoid the diffusion on Instagram of images related to their heavy use of alcohol through particular strategies. They untag, delete or avoid using their smartphone; and they choose the audience to whom images are directed, and the areas of publication. The desire to be posting and exhibiting constantly converges with embarrassment and precaution with (un)known audiences. Gender is a key element for understanding the differences in the way in which posts on Instagram related to drinking and drunkenness affect young people.

CONCLUSIONS

Our data show that Instagram fosters the spreading of an ideal model of "alcohol consumption" online that tends to conceal the adverse effects of the substance, and that the online diffusion of behaviour concerning drinking is not gender-neutral.

I See, Therefore I am: Exposure to Alcohol References on Social Media, but Not on Traditional Media, Is Related to Alcohol Consumption via Drinking and Non-Drinking Identity

In recent years, the role of media in individuals' alcohol consumption has been touched upon by several researchers. Nevertheless, the underlying processes explaining the relationship between media use and alcohol consumption, as well as the differences in strength of the associations between social and traditional media use and alcohol consumption remain understudied. The present exploratory cross-sectional study (N = 381) among emerging adults (M = 21.83, SD = 2.04, 75.3% females, 67.7% college students) examined drinking identity and non-drinking identity as underlying mechanisms of the relationship between alcohol-related media use and alcohol consumption, while comparing the role of social and traditional media in these processes. We found no associations between traditional media use and drinking identity, non-drinking identity or alcohol consumption. In contrast, social media use was both directly and indirectly related to alcohol consumption via drinking identity and non-drinking identity. This demonstrates that social media can play a socializing role in emerging adults' alcohol consumption.

The alcohol self-presentation model: Using thematic qualitative analysis to elucidate how college students self-present via alcohol-related social media posts

INTRODUCTION

Posting and viewing of alcohol-related content to social media is prevalent among college students and is related to problematic drinking. However, the cognitive self-presentation and self-monitoring processes behind users' alcohol-related content posts to different platforms are largely unknown.

METHODS

Through in-depth, qualitative interviews with college students (n = 15) who drink heavily and post alcohol-related content regularly, we developed the Alcohol Self-Presentation Model.

RESULTS

Using a multi-step thematic analysis approach, the themes of protectiveness and acquisitiveness emerged; these themes served as the basis of our model. In total, three protectiveness (perceived permanence of the content, privacy and reputation concerns) factors and four acquisitiveness (provocative, impulsive, high-status, maintaining relevance and connections) factors were derived.

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS

Our model delineated the alcohol self-presentations which allowed participants to demonstrate disparate versions of themselves to certain social media audiences. Our results illuminated that what people identify as being alcohol-related content, and what motivates the individual to post alcohol-related content, are essential to better comprehending how their alcohol-related content uniquely contributes to their drinking. Understanding students' alcohol self-presentations is important since their alcohol-related content may be putting themselves, and others, at-risk by perpetuating patterns of frequent posting and heavy drinking within the network. Our model may inform future behavioural interventions targeting the reduction of drinking among young people who are active on social media.

A parent-based intervention for reducing high-risk social media cognitions, alcohol use, and negative consequences among adolescents: Protocol for a randomized controlled pilot study (Preprint)

Background

The prevalence of adolescent alcohol use continues to be a public health concern. Although adolescents spend an increasing amount of time with their friends, parents remain an important source of support and continue to play a key role in the lives of their adolescents. Extensive research in this area has resulted in parent-based intervention (PBI) efforts to prevent or reduce adolescent alcohol use. However, one major limitation of PBIs is that they do not currently consider the large role that social media plays in adolescents’ lives and in relation to their alcohol use. We will add to the literature by developing and refining a web-based PBI designed to reduce both high-risk social media cognitions and alcohol use among adolescents.

Objective

The central goal of the proposed study is to develop, refine, and pilot a web-based PBI to reduce both high-risk social media cognitions and alcohol use among adolescents.

Methods

A total of 100 parent-teen dyads will be randomly assigned to one of the following 2 conditions: intervention or control. Parents in the intervention group will be given access to the web-based PBI and suggestions for working through the PBI modules with their teens. The parent-teen dyads will fill out 3 questionnaires: a baseline questionnaire, 1-month questionnaire, and 6-month questionnaire.

Results

Recruitment and enrollment will begin in August 2022. Upon completion of the intervention trial, we will examine the feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary effect sizes of the newly developed web-based PBI.

Conclusions

This study has the potential to open doors for future studies examining the clinical implications of an efficacious web-based PBI to reduce alcohol use and high-risk cognitions about alcohol displays on social media.

Trial Registration

ClinicalTrials.gov NCT04333966; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04333966

International Registered Report Identifier (IRRID)

PRR1-10.2196/38543

Stay Home, Drink at Home? A Daily Diary Study on College Students' Alcohol and Social Media Use during the COVID-19 Pandemic

BACKGROUND

COVID-19 and measures to contain it may have impacted college students' behavior, including their drinking behavior. Students' drinking may have decreased-for example, due to the closure of bars-but problematic drinking may have increased-for example, due to (solitary) drinking at home. Another behavior that has increased due to COVID-19 and the accompanying social isolation is students' social networking site (SNS) use. This is worrisome because students' SNS use has been shown to increase their alcohol use. Nevertheless, little research has investigated these behaviors and the possible link between them during a lockdown. Therefore, this study aimed to examine (1) whether students engaged in drinking during a lockdown, (2) whether they displayed their drinking behavior on SNSs, and (3) whether exposure to and posting of alcohol-related content was linked to their daily alcohol use.

METHODS

337 college students (M_age = 20.63 years, SD_age = 1.55 years; 50.3% male) participated in a two-week daily diary study. Descriptive statistical analyses and generalized linear mixed modeling (GLMM) were deployed.

RESULTS

Descriptive analysis results showed that during the week, students' drinking occurred with friends in dormitories, while in the weekend, this behavior shifted to drinking with friends and parents at home. Moreover, students mostly saw visual and posted textual posts of this drinking on SNSs. Furthermore, GLMM revealed associations between exposure to alcohol postings, sharing of alcohol postings, and students' probability of drinking on the same day.

CONCLUSION

This study provides important insights into students' alcohol use and its underlying mechanisms during health crises.

'Super googs on a Zoom, are you kidding me?': The pleasures and constraints of digitally-mediated alcohol and other drug consumption

INTRODUCTION

The COVID-19 pandemic and associated social restrictions have profoundly shaped the routines, practices and space-times of alcohol and other drug (AOD) consumption. As a part of these transformations, video conferencing services (e.g. Zoom, Whereby) have emerged as popular mediums for socialising and AOD consumption. In this article, we adopt a more-than-human theoretical framework to explore how these online contexts re-shape experiences of AOD consumption.

METHODS

Data were gathered using a case-study approach, guided by principles of digital ethnography. We 'staged' the online gatherings of three established friendship clusters of adults in Melbourne, Australia, and drew on a discussion guide to elicit accounts of past online AOD encounters during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our thematic analysis was sensitised to the dynamic composition of these encounters and the kinds of relations, practices and affects they enabled and constrained.

RESULTS

Composed via video conferencing services, AOD consumption afforded distinct pleasures, including enhanced sociality, excitement and momentary reprieves from isolation. Importantly, these effects were not uniform or stable. Participants also navigated various constraints of online AOD consumption while establishing for themselves what substances and associated practices 'fit' within these novel encounters.

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS

Our study conveys the importance of digitally-mediated AOD consumption as a site of socialising and pleasure. In so doing, it demonstrates the ways in which AOD consumption was drawn on in the everyday negotiation of health and wellbeing under lockdown conditions. We call for research and policy approaches that are sensitive to the affirmative potentials of digitally=mediated AOD encounters.

Causal Effects of Alcohol-Related Facebook Posts on Drinking Behavior: Longitudinal Experimental Study

Background

Adolescents and young adults frequently post alcohol-related content (ie, alcoholposts) on social media. This is problematic because both social norms theory and social learning theory suggest that viewing alcoholposts of peers could increase drinking behavior. It is therefore paramount to understand the effects of exposure to alcoholposts on viewers.

Objective

This study aimed to investigate the causal effects of exposure to alcoholposts on alcohol consumption by using a rigorous design.

Methods

We conducted a 6-week longitudinal study during which alcoholposts were measured by a newly developed app that copied Facebook posts shared by participants (n=281) to a new social media environment. In addition, daily questionnaires assessed alcohol use. Effects of natural alcoholposts (ie, posted by the participants) were assessed in phase 1, and effects of experimental posts (ie, posted by fake participants) were explored in phase 2.

Results

Results showed that natural alcoholposts increased the occurrence and quantity of drinking the following day. That is, exposure to a single additional alcoholpost increased the log odds of drinking the next day by 0.27 (b=.27, credible interval [CI] .18 to .35). Furthermore, the number of natural alcoholposts had a positive (predictive) effect on the number of glasses drunk the next day (b=.21, CI .14 to .29). In phase 2 when experimental posts were also present, these effects decreased. Experimental posts themselves had hardly any effects.

Conclusions

This study illustrates clear and direct effects of exposure to alcoholposts on next-day alcohol consumption and suggests that alcoholposts represent an important societal problem that interventions need to address.

Mothers Matter: Using Regression Tree Algorithms to Predict Adolescents' Sharing of Drunk References on Social Media

Exposure to online drinking on social media is associated with real-life alcohol consumption. Building on the Theory of planned behavior, the current study substantially adds to this line of research by identifying the predictors of sharing drunk references on social media. Based on a cross-sectional survey among 1639 adolescents with a mean age of 15 (59% female), this study compares and discusses multiple regression tree algorithms predicting the sharing of drunk references. More specifically, this paper compares the accuracy of classification and regression tree, bagging, random forest and extreme gradient boosting algorithms. The analysis indicates that four concepts are central to predicting adolescents' sharing of drunk references: (1) exposure to them on social media; (2) the perceived injunctive norms of the mother towards alcohol consumption; (3) the perceived descriptive norms of best friends towards alcohol consumption; and (4) willingness to drink alcohol. The most accurate results were obtained using extreme gradient boosting. This study provides theoretical, practical, and methodological conclusions. It shows that maternal norms toward alcohol consumption are a central predictor for sharing drunk references. Therefore, future media literacy interventions should take an ecological perspective. In addition, this analysis indicates that regression trees are an advantageous method in youth research, combining accurate predictions with straightforward interpretations.

The Spiral of Positive Feedback: Go-Along Interviews About Adolescents’ Perceptions of and Reactions to Alcohol Posts on Social Media

Go-along interviews among adolescents ( N = 26, M age = 16.31, SD = .83) were conducted to examine how adolescents interpret alcohol posts in terms of appropriateness and how this, in turn, plays a role in adolescents’ reactions toward alcohol posts on public and private social media entries. The findings of this study, first, indicate that alcohol posts were classified as appropriate or inappropriate based on the amount of alcohol and the displayed behavior in the post. Second, most posts, including inappropriate ones, received positive or no feedback. Moreover, adolescents deliberately seemed to withhold negative feedback out of fear of being misjudged by peers. Still, negative reactions were expressed more quickly in safer off- and online environments (i.e., face-to-face conversation and online chat messages) because they were visible to close friends only. This is important in view of prevention as it unravels the interesting role of private environments in stimulating negative interpersonal communication.

Social Media Use in the Context of Drinking Onset: The Mutual Influences of Social Media Effects and Selectivity

The article aims to provide a profound understanding of the multifaceted role of adolescents' social media use in the context of drinking onset. It differentiates between exposure and sharing effects from social media content on drinking behavior and, conversely, exposure to and sharing of alcohol-related content due to drinking in the initiation phase of regular alcohol consumption. We tested our hypotheses based on a two-wave survey among adolescents aged 13 to 17 and focused on those who had not yet been regular drinkers at the first wave of data collection (n = 406). Based on a cross-lagged panel model, we found that exposure to alcohol-related content (exposure effect) as well as the sharing of such content (sharing effect) affected drinking behavior, and that drinking behavior resulted in the sharing of alcohol-related content on social media (selective sharing). We discuss a self-concept verification spiral at the individual level and a social influence spiral at the social level to assess possible risk-reinforcing dynamics.

[National efforts for alcohol prevention by the Federal Center for Health Education (BZgA)]

Alcohol consumption in Germany continues to be high relative to its European neighbors. A long-term reduction of alcohol consumption can result in a reduction of the morbidity and mortality associated with alcohol. For many years now, the Federal Centre for Health Education (BZgA) has directed its focus in the field of addiction prevention on alcohol prevention and implemented three national multilevel campaigns intended for this target group. "Null Alkohol - Voll Power" (No Alcohol - Full Power) addresses adolescents between the ages of 12 and 16 and the campaign "Alkohol? Kenn dein Limit." (Alcohol? Know Your Limit.) comprises two separate campaigns dedicated to adults and 16- to 20-year-olds, respectively. Further, the BZgA provides sports clubs with the opportunity to participate in a program entitled "Alkoholfrei Sport genießen" (Enjoying Sports Without Alcohol). In this contribution, these measures and their foundational concepts are presented.The campaigns are interconnected to form a prevention chain that serves to bundle the individual efforts. All are based on the principles of social marketing and are continually quality checked. At the center of these efforts lies internet communication, complemented by direct communication in the lives of the target groups as well as mass communication in the form of billboards, TV and radio spots, ads, and print media. The BZgA is able to implement these programs in schools, clubs, and at the municipal level because of the good cooperation and coordination it maintains with the individual federal states. For decades now, the BZgA has conducted monitoring in the form of regular representative surveys, among others, on the subject of alcohol consumption behavior among 12- to 25-year-olds in Germany. The results show that although overall alcohol consumption may be on the decline over the long term, it still remains high.

How Viewing Alcohol Posts of Friends on Social Networking Sites Influences Predictors of Alcohol Use

Young adults are frequently exposed to alcohol posts from their friends on social networking sites, and little research has investigated the influences of these posts on alcohol use. Therefore, this study investigated how exposure to alcohol posts influenced determinants of alcohol use, and whether alcohol posts of close friends influenced these determinants more strongly compared to alcohol posts of distant friends. Students from Dutch universities (N = 210) participated in an experiment with a 2 (post condition: alcohol or neutral) x 2 (friend condition: close or distant) between-subjects design. Participants that were exposed to alcohol posts reported higher intention to use alcohol, F(1, 204) = 4.32, p =.039, willingness to use alcohol, F(1, 204) = 8.15, p =.005, and more positive affective attitudes about alcohol, F(1, 204) = 5.84, p =.017, than participants that were exposed to neutral posts. Additionally, participants who viewed alcohol posts of close friends reported more positive affective attitudes about alcohol compared to participants who viewed alcohol posts of distant friends, F(1, 204) = 5.15, p =.024. Developers of health interventions could use these findings to raise awareness about the unhealthy influences of alcohol posts on determinants of young adults' alcohol use.

Long-term Associations Between Substance Use-Related Media Exposure, Descriptive Norms, and Alcohol Use from Adolescence to Young Adulthood

Adolescents and young adults in the United States are constantly exposed to substance-related media and advertising content. The current study seeks to explore, developmentally, how exposure to substance-related media content influences both normative beliefs about peer alcohol use and individual alcohol use. Youth (N = 4'840; 50.6% female) were followed for ten years from age 12 to 22. Auto-regressive latent trajectory with structured residual (ALT-SR) models were used to explore within-person reciprocal associations between substance-related media content, descriptive norms, and alcohol use. Results indicated that' across adolescence and young adulthood, exposure to substance-related media content was associated with increased alcohol use via perceived alcohol norms. The pathway from media exposure to alcohol use was mediated by increased perceived norms for adolescents only. With screen time increasing over the last decade, it is important to invest resources into real-time interventions that address substance-related social media content as it relates to misperceived norms and to begin these interventions in early adolescence.

Youth Drug Use in Barbados and England: Correlates With Online Peer Influences

This study examined the relationship between susceptibility to drug-related online peer influence on Facebook and offline alcohol, tobacco, and marijuana use among emerging adults (18-24 years) enrolled at the university level in Barbados and England. A cross-national comparative, explanatory sequential mixed-methods design was employed with samples of students of African-Caribbean descent and European descent in Barbados and England, respectively. Quantitative data were collected using surveys from 241 students in Barbados and 186 in England. Qualitative focus groups were conducted with 23 Barbadian students and 16 English students. Spearman’s rank-order correlations were conducted to analyze quantitative data and a three-tiered categorization system was used to analyze the qualitative data. Significant positive relationships between students’ susceptibility to online peer influence (SOPI) and alcohol, tobacco, and marijuana use were found. Six qualitative themes emerged representing cross-national similarities, while three themes emerged highlighting some differences between the two contexts. We propose that the relationship between SOPI and offline drug use may be mediated by the interrelated factors of emerging-adult developmental characteristics and the online and offline social environments. We represent these findings diagrammatically to convey that developmental and environmental factors together can provide a holistic understanding of the interplay between online interactions and offline risk behaviors.

Correlates of Reduced Alcohol Consumption among a Sample of Young Australians

AIMS

Population data suggest that a significant proportion of young drinkers are reducing or ceasing their alcohol use; however, there is a lack of information about the characteristics of young people who do so. Our study aimed to determine characteristics associated with self-reported attempted and successful alcohol reduction and cessation among young people in Victoria, Australia.

METHODS

Data are from a cross-sectional online survey with young people aged 15-29 years living in Victoria, Australia. Participants who reported consuming alcohol in the past 12 months were included in the analysis (N = 1,162).

RESULTS

Alcohol drinking cessation in the past 12 months was reported by 3.8% (n = 44) and reduced alcohol consumption was reported by 32.1% (n = 371) of participants. Characteristics associated with trying to reduce or cease alcohol consumption were older age, being born overseas, drinking at hazardous levels, experiencing alcohol-related harms and interest in health content on social media. Characteristics associated with successful alcohol reduction or cessation were being born overseas and experiencing alcohol-related harm, while being a member of a religious group was negatively associated.

CONCLUSIONS

Recent reduction in alcohol consumption was common among young people in this study. Recent reduction in alcohol consumption was common among young people in this study. A combination of factors appear to be correlated with recent attempts to reduce drinking young people including socio-demographic characteristics, religiosity, drinking practices and experience of harm, and interest in health.

The role of alcohol in constructing gender & class identities among young women in the age of social media

Research suggests young women view drinking as a pleasurable aspect of their social lives but that they face challenges in engaging in a traditionally ‘masculine’ behaviour whilst maintaining a desirable ‘femininity’. Social network sites such as Facebook make socialising visible to a wide audience. This paper explores how young people discuss young women’s drinking practices, and how young women construct their identities through alcohol consumption and its display on social media. We conducted 21 friendship-based focus groups (both mixed and single sex) with young adults aged 18–29 years and 13 individual interviews with a subset of focus group respondents centred on their Facebook practices. We recruited a purposive sample in Glasgow, Scotland (UK) which included ‘middle class’ (defined as students and those in professional jobs) and ‘working class’ respondents (employed in manual/service sector jobs), who participated in a range of venues in the night time economy. Young women’s discussions revealed a difficult ‘balancing act’ between demonstrating an ‘up for it’ sexy (but not too sexy) femininity through their drinking and appearance, while still retaining control and respectability. This ‘balancing act’ was particularly precarious for working class women, who appeared to be judged more harshly than middle class women both online and offline. While a gendered double standard around appearance and alcohol consumption is not new, a wider online audience can now observe and comment on how women look and behave. Social structures such as gender and social class remain central to the construction of identity both online and offline.

The role of alcohol in identity construction among LGBT people: a qualitative study

Research suggests that alcohol use and misuse are higher among lesbian, gay and bisexual than heterosexual populations, yet the social context of drinking in sexual minority communities has rarely been examined. To explore lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people's relationship with alcohol, we conducted seven focus groups (N = 33) with pre-existing groups of friends and work colleagues (18 to 52 years) in Scotland, UK. We identified and analysed patterns in our data using thematic analysis. Respondents perceived heavy drinking as central to the commercial gay scene. Choice of drink and drinking vessel was an important part of identity construction. Respondents discussed the perception that gay men would drink alcopops and cocktails while lesbians would drink pints of beer. Even when stereotypes were dismissed as inaccurate, they were still thought to pressure people to drink 'appropriately'. Respondents who did not identify as male or female, and those who used drag, were particularly aware of their choice of drink as a means to express identity or to challenge people's preconceptions about gender. Researchers developing interventions to reduce alcohol-related harm in sexual minority populations need to take account of the central role of identity construction in LGBT drinking practices.

Alcohol-Related Posts from Young People on Social Networking Sites: Content and Motivations

Many young people place alcohol-related posts on social networking sites (SNS) which can result in undesirable effects. Although several recent studies have investigated the occurrence of alcohol-related SNS use, it is neither clear (a) what type of alcohol posts are placed on SNS, (b) the motivations to place alcohol posts, nor (c) which young people are most likely to place alcohol posts. This study addressed these three goals. A large cross-sectional study among young participants (12-30 years; N = 561) assessed the posting of different types of alcohol posts, the motivations to (not) post these posts, and potential differences in posting between subgroups (i.e., in terms of age, gender, and religion). Participants reported that they most often placed moderate, instead of more extreme, alcohol posts, in particular, when alcohol was present in the post "by chance". Furthermore, they indicated to post alcohol-related content mostly for entertainment reasons. Finally, we found differences in self-reported posting and motivations to post according to age, gender, and religion. These findings provide relevant implications for future interventions aiming to decrease alcohol posts, for example, by making participants aware of their posting behavior and by targeting specific at risk groups. Future research should explore the effectiveness of such intervention strategies and should investigate whether alcohol posts lead to an underestimation of alcohol-related risks.

'Hidden Habitus': A Qualitative Study of Socio-Ecological Influences on Drinking Practices and Social Identity in Mid-Adolescence

This study explored mid-adolescents' views and experiences of socio-ecological influences on their drinking practices in order to help inform the development of interventions to reduce alcohol-related risk. We conducted 31 in-depth interviews with young people aged 13-17 in North East England. Verbatim interview transcripts and field notes were coded systematically and analysed thematically, following the principles of constant comparison. We adopted Bourdieu's idea of social game-playing and elements of his conceptual toolkit (particularly habitus, capital and field) during analysis. Analysis yielded three intersecting themes: (1) 'drinking etiquette': conveying taste and disgust; (2) 'playing the drinking game': demonstrating cultural competency; (3) 'hidden habitus'-the role of alcohol marketing. Our work demonstrates that there is a nexus of influential factors which come together to help shape and reinforce mid-adolescents' behaviour, norms and values in relation to alcohol consumption. Drinking practices are not just formed by friendships and family traditions, these are also subject to wider cultural shaping including by the alcohol industry which can encourage brand identification, and gear specific products to add 'distinction'. However young people are not inactive players and they use aspects of capital and social games to help cement their identity and present themselves in particular ways which in turn are influenced by age, gender and social status. Guided by promising work in the tobacco field, interventions which focus on critical awareness of the framing of alcohol products by key stakeholders, such as policymakers, commercial industry and public health professionals, and by wider society may facilitate behaviour change among young people.

Risk perception in young women’s collective alcohol consumption

Purpose

Heavy episodic drinking in young women has caused concern among many groups including public health professionals. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the experiences of young women’s alcohol consumption so as to facilitate better health education targeting.

Design/methodology/approach

This qualitative descriptive study examines the narratives of 16 young women’s experience of a “night out” framed as the Alcohol Consumption Journey.

Findings

The young women’s Alcohol Consumption Journey is a ritual perpetuated by the “experienced” and “anticipated” pleasure from social bonding and collective intoxication. The data showed three sequential phases; preloading, going out and recovery, which were repeated regularly. The young women perceived that going out was riskier than preloading or recovery and employed protective strategies to minimise risk and maximise pleasure. Alcohol was consumed collectively to enhance the experience of pleasure and facilitate enjoyment in the atmosphere of the night time economy. Implications for health interventions on collective alcohol consumption and perceived risk are presented.

Originality/value

The concept of socio-pleasure is valuable to explain the perpetuation of the young’s women ritualised Alcohol Consumption Journey. The binary concepts of mundane/celebration, individual/collective and insiders/outsiders are useful to illustrate the balancing of collective intoxication with group protective strategies in navigating the edge between risk and pleasure.

Facebook dethroned: Revealing the more likely social media destinations for college students' depictions of underage drinking

Studies examining representations of college drinking on social media have almost exclusively focused on Facebook. However, recent research suggests college students may be more influenced by peers' alcohol-related posts on Instagram and Snapchat, two image-based platforms popular among this demographic. One potential explanation for this differential influence is that qualitative distinctions in the types of alcohol-related content posted by students on these three platforms may exist. Informed by undergraduate focus groups, this study examined the hypothesis that, of the three platforms, students tend to use Instagram most often for photos glamourizing drinking and Snapchat for incriminating photos of alcohol misuse and negative consequences. Undergraduate research assistants aided investigators in developing hypothetical vignettes and photographic examples of posts both glamorizing and depicting negative consequences associated with college drinking. In an online survey, vignette and photo stimuli were followed by counterbalanced paired comparisons that presented each possible pair of social media platforms. Undergraduates (N=196) selected the platform from each pair on which they would be more likely to see each post. Generalized Bradley-Terry models examined the probabilities of platform selections. As predicted, Instagram was seen as the most probable destination (and Facebook least probable) for photos depicting alcohol use as attractive and glamorous. Conversely, Snapchat was selected as the most probable destination (and Facebook least probable) for items depicting negative consequences associated with heavy drinking. Results suggest researchers aiming to mitigate the potential influences associated with college students' glamorous and consequential alcohol-related photos posted social media posts should shift their focus from Facebook to Instagram and Snapchat.

Go-along interviewing with LGBTQ youth in Canada and the United States

Go-along interviews, which are interviews conducted whilst being in and moving within participant selected spaces, were conducted with 66 LGBTQ adolescents (14-19 years old) in their self-identified communities to explore perceived community attributes, including safe spaces, resources, and supports; this paper highlights methodological lessons learned. Successful recruitment in two countries and varied community settings required partnership with local LGBTQ supporting agencies, including school-based Gay Straight Alliances. Youth chose to walk, use public transportation, and drive to community locations, identifying numerous formal and informal resources in their communities. Participant reflections highlighted that go-along interviews can be conducted in safe ways that encourage LGBTQ youth to express themselves about communities in which they live, study, work, play, and relax.

'If I don't look good, it just doesn't go up': A qualitative study of young women's drinking cultures and practices on Social Network Sites

BACKGROUND

Young women in the UK often partake in a culture of intoxication in the pursuit of pleasure and friendship fun. Experiences of intoxication and drinking spaces remain highly gendered, and relative to men, women continue to find their behaviours in drinking spaces more constrained and scrutinised. Simultaneously, young women now express themselves via Social Network Sites (SNS), where they display drinking experiences and where they perform, negotiate and display contemporary femininities.

METHODS

The research explored young women's experiences of drinking and intoxication, the use of SNS in their drinking cultures and the display of drinking practices on SNS through group interviews (n=12) with women (n=37) aged 16-21 from one city in the North-West of England, UK.

RESULTS

The practice of uploading drinking photographs to SNS played an important role in displaying young women's popularity, enhancing friendship fun and belonging, and in positioning the hyper-sexual feminine look as the norm in drinking spaces. Both intoxication and the hyper-sexual and feminine look challenged traditional notions of respectable femininity, while the highly groomed feminine look itself was threatened by drunkenness. As such, young women invested much work and effort in self-surveillance and in managing the display of their drinking behaviours on SNS.

CONCLUSION

The dilemmas in contemporary femininity created by the juxtaposition of hyper-sexual femininity and the culture of intoxication are reproduced on SNS. Controlling and restricting certain content on SNS with the aim of achieving the 'right' feminine self-presentation resulted in a narrowly set of body oriented and behavioural feminine attributes being presented as the norm, and an overly positive online representation of young women's drinking experiences.

Different digital paths to the keg? How exposure to peers' alcohol-related social media content influences drinking among male and female first-year college students

Despite speculation that peers' alcohol-related content on social media sites (SMS) may influence the alcohol use behaviors of SMS frequenting college students, this relationship has not been investigated longitudinally. The current prospective study assesses the relationship between exposure to peers' alcohol-related SMS content and later-drinking among first-year college students. Among 408 first-year students, total exposure to peers' alcohol-related content on Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat during the initial 6 weeks of college predicted alcohol consumption 6 months later. The rather robust relationship persisted even after students' and close friends drinking were accounted for, indicating that alcohol references on SMS do not simply reflect alcohol use behaviors that would otherwise be observed in the absence of SMS and be predictive of later alcohol use. Findings also illuminate important gender differences in the degree to which peers' alcohol-related SMS content influenced later drinking behavior as well as psychological mediators of this relationship. Among females, enhancement drinking motives and beliefs about the role of alcohol in the college experience fully mediated the relationship between SMS alcohol exposure and later drinking. Males, however, evidenced a much stronger predictive relationship between SMS alcohol exposure and second semester drinking, with this relationship only partially explained by perceptions of drinking norms, enhancement drinking motives, and beliefs about the role of alcohol in the college experience. Implications of these findings for college drinking prevention efforts and directions for future research are discussed.

“Tragic girls” and “crack whores”: Alcohol, femininity and Facebook

New Zealand, similar to many other westernised nations, has a well-developed national culture of drinking to intoxication. Within this cultural context, young women are exhorted to engage with the night time economy, get drunk and have “fun” without relinquishing claims to “respectability”. More recently, the rise of Facebook and other social networking sites has coincided with shifts in postfeminism, neo-liberalism and the development of the night time economy. Social networking sites have become a mundane part of people’s everyday lives, whilst still reflecting structural constraints such as class, ethnicity and gender. This article reports on a qualitative study of young women’s drinking practices and uses of Facebook. Focus group discussions were conducted with eight friendship groups involving 36 participants aged 18–25 years. Transcripts of these discussions were subjected to thematic analysis. Three key themes were identified: “tragic girls” and “crack whores”; “drunken femininities”; and “Facebook, alcohol and drunken femininities”. The results indicated that young women experienced significant tensions in expressing their “drunken femininities” both in public and online, whilst also engaging in “airbrushing” of Facebook photos to minimize the appearance of intoxication for known and unknown audiences.