A study by North Carolina State University, together with Ohio University, has shown that children with a psychological profile of “alcohol identity” means that such people, when they become college students, are at a far higher risk of developing drinking problems.
The question is how to spot this early enough so that help can be given? This is where social media comes in. The joint study has found that teens who post on Facebook, Twitter and other media sites about their alcohol use, or even identifying with certain dink brands, have a greater potential for abusing alcohol.
In a research note, the project lead, Lynsey Romo, an assistant professor of communication at NC State, notes: “This work underscores the central role that social networking sites, or SNSs, play in helping students coordinate, advertise and facilitate their drinking experiences.”
Professor Romo adds: “The study also indicates that students who are at risk of having drinking problems can be identified through SNSs.”
The research is supported by interviews with 364 students attending Midwestern university. For selection, each student stated that had drunk at least one alcoholic drink in the past month and they were active users of either Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.
Through questionnaires and an analysis of the students’ social media posts, there was a strong correlation between drinking alcohol and posting about it on SNSs in terms of espousing an alcohol identity, with what might be considered alcohol abuse (that is drinking too much or behaving in an anti-social way.) Individuals prone to this activity tended to consider drinking a part of who they were.
It may seem counter-intuitive at first, but it was found that having an alcoholic drink was less strongly correlated with alcohol problems than posting about alcohol use was. This makes sense when alcohol abuse is considered in terms of anti-social behavior; the social media research suggests that behaving in a certain way was as much about perceptions as the level of alcohol consumed.
To help address this, the researchers think they have a computer tool that can help to identify teens prone to alcohol abuse from an analysis of the individual’s social media accounts.
The research is published in the Journal of Health Communication, with the study titled “College Students’ Drinking and Posting About Alcohol: Forwarding a Model of Motivations, Behaviors, and Consequences.”
