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Project

Understanding the reciprocal associations between adolescents’ social media use and alchohol: A multimethod appraoch.

Accumulating evidence indicates that adolescents’ use of social networking sites (SNS) is associated with alcohol consumption. The current project extends this line of research in important theoretical,empirical, and methodological ways. First, building upon models such as the reinforcing spirals model (Slater, 2007), the differential susceptibility to media effects model (Valkenburg & Peter, 2013) and the prototype willingness model (Gerrard et al., 2008), the project aims to determine the specific impact of adolescents’ use of SNS on alcohol use and misuse over and beyond the impact of offline influences (e.g., dispositional and social factors). Second, the study is the first to take the heterogeneity of different social media platforms into account when examining the longitudinal and reciprocal associations between adolescents’ SNS use and alcohol consumption. A multimethodological approach combining qualitative go-along interviews and a quantitative longitudinal survey will be used to attain these objectives. Not only will this study contribute to a more sophisticated understanding of why adolescents consume alcohol, it will also lead to the development of a conceptual framework explaining the various ways through which adolescents’ SNS uses are associated with health and risk-related outcomes.

Date:1 Jan 2018 →  31 Dec 2021
Keywords:media use
Disciplines:Communication sciences, Journalism and professional writing, Media studies, Other media and communications