Perceived Attitudes About Substance Use in Anonymous Social Media Posts Near College Campuses: Observational Study

Understanding and preventing the advertisement and sale of illicit drugs to young people through social media: A multidisciplinary scoping review

ISSUES

The sale of illicit drugs online has expanded to mainstream social media apps. These platforms provide access to a wide audience, especially children and adolescents. Research is in its infancy and scattered due to the multidisciplinary aspects of the phenomena.

APPROACH

We present a multidisciplinary systematic scoping review on the advertisement and sale of illicit drugs to young people. Peer-reviewed studies written in English, Spanish and French were searched for the period 2015 to 2022. We extracted data on users, drugs studied, rate of posts, terminology used and study methodology.

KEY FINDINGS

A total of 56 peer-reviewed papers were included. The analysis of these highlights the variety of drugs advertised and platforms used to do so. Various methodological designs were considered. Approaches to detecting illicit content were the focus of many studies as algorithms move from detecting drug-related keywords to drug selling behaviour. We found that on average, for the studies reviewed, 13 in 100 social media posts advertise illicit drugs. However, popular platforms used by adolescents are rarely studied.

IMPLICATIONS

Promotional content is increasing in sophistication to appeal to young people, shifting towards healthy, glamourous and seemingly legal depictions of drugs. Greater inter-disciplinary collaboration between computational and qualitative approaches are needed to comprehensively study the sale and advertisement of illegal drugs on social media across different platforms. This requires coordinated action from researchers, policy makers and service providers.

Substance use and sentiment and topical tendencies: a study using social media conversations of youth experiencing homelessness

Purpose

This study investigates associations between Facebook (FB) conversations and self-reports of substance use among youth experiencing homelessness (YEH). YEH engage in high rates of substance use and are often difficult to reach, for both research and interventions. Social media sites provide rich digital trace data for observing the social context of YEH's health behaviors. The authors aim to investigate the feasibility of using these big data and text mining techniques as a supplement to self-report surveys in detecting and understanding YEH attitudes and engagement in substance use.

Design/methodology/approach

Participants took a self-report survey in addition to providing consent for researchers to download their Facebook feed data retrospectively. The authors collected survey responses from 92 participants and retrieved 33,204 textual Facebook conversations. The authors performed text mining analysis and statistical analysis including ANOVA and logistic regression to examine the relationship between YEH's Facebook conversations and their substance use.

Findings

Facebook posts of YEH have a moderately positive sentiment. YEH substance users and non-users differed in their Facebook posts regarding: (1) overall sentiment and (2) topics discussed. Logistic regressions show that more positive sentiment in a respondent's FB conversation suggests a lower likelihood of marijuana usage. On the other hand, discussing money-related topics in the conversation increases YEH's likelihood of marijuana use.

Originality/value

Digital trace data on social media sites represent a vast source of ecological data. This study demonstrates the feasibility of using such data from a hard-to-reach population to gain unique insights into YEH's health behaviors. The authors provide a text-mining-based toolkit for analyzing social media data for interpretation by experts from a variety of domains.

The joint development of externalizing and internalizing behaviors in black and Hispanic youth and the link to late adolescent substance use

There is a need to understand how the joint development of externalizing and internalizing behaviors is related to substance use, particularly among historically understudied and often disadvantaged populations. Latent class models were used to estimate patterns of externalizing behaviors and internalizing behaviors in the form of depressive and anxious symptoms from age 6 to 14 among 390 Black and Hispanic youth. Then, growth curve models of substance use between the ages of 15 and 19 were estimated as a function of joint latent class membership. Only elevated levels of externalizing behaviors were associated with higher levels of substance use through age 18. Internalizing behaviors appeared to serve as a protective factor among those with moderate displays of externalizing behavior only. Additionally, growth in substance use from ages 15 to 19 was slower among those who displayed the highest level of externalizing behaviors, and internalizing behaviors appeared to moderate growth (and serve as protective factor) among those who displayed moderate levels of externalizing behaviors. The findings underscore the importance of pattern profiles based on observations of the joint development of problem behaviors to assess risk for substance use, particularly in understudied populations where risk/protective factors may operate in a unique manner.

A Prospective Longitudinal Cohort Study of College Students' Alcohol and Abstinence Displays on Social Media

PURPOSE

The past decade has seen tremendous growth in research focused on understanding college students' alcohol-related social media displays. However, longitudinal studies remain rare. The purpose of this 5-year study was to describe alcohol and abstinence display patterns on Facebook.

METHODS

This prospective longitudinal cohort study recruited incoming 17- to 19-year-old college students from two universities upon entering college. Trained coders evaluated Facebook profiles monthly over five years to identify alcohol and abstinence displays. Alcohol displays were further categorized as general alcohol use or intoxication/problem drinking references. Analyses included multivariate negative binomial regression.

RESULTS

Among 338 participants recruited (mean age = 18.4, SD = .6), 56.1% were female, 74.8% were Caucasian, and 58.8% were from the Midwest college. General alcohol use references were most common in the spring semester of the third year (mean = 3.9 displays; 95% CI: 3.21-4.73), these often included references to a "21 run." Intoxication/problem drinking references were most common in spring semester of the first year (mean = .79 displays, 95% confidence interval: .56-1.10) and second year of college (mean = .77 displays, 95% confidence interval: .54-1.11). There were no gender differences associated with alcohol displays at any time point. Abstinence displays were rare and declined in frequency to a low of four total displays in year 5.

CONCLUSIONS

This 5-year study is the first to document patterns of alcohol and abstinence displays throughout the undergraduate experience. Findings may inform planning targeted interventions by time point, or longitudinal studies of other substances or on different platforms.