Megan A. Moreno|Leslie R. Briner|Amanda L. Williams|Libby Brockman|Leslie R. Walker|Dimitri Christakis
A Content Analysis of Displayed Alcohol References on a Social Networking Web Site
University of Wisconsin–Madison|University of Washington|University of Washington|University of Washington|University of Washington
exposure alcohol use media associated adolescent alcohol use adolescents frequently display alcohol references internet media social networking web sites purpose study conduct theoretically based content analysis older adolescents displayed alcohol references social networking web sitewe evaluated 400 randomly selected public myspace profiles selfreported 17 20yearolds zip codes representing urban suburban rural communities one washington county content evaluated alcohol references suggesting 1 explicit versus figurative alcohol use 2 alcoholrelated motivations associations consequences including references met crafft problem drinking criteria compared profiles four target zip codes prevalence frequency alcohol displayof 400 profiles 225 563 contained 341 references alcohol profile owners displayed alcohol references mostly male 542 white 707 frequent reference category explicit use 493 commonly displayed alcohol use motivation peer pressure 47 references met crafft problem drinking criteria 32 differences prevalence frequency alcohol display among four sociodemographic communitiesdespite alcohol use illegal potentially stigmatizing population explicit alcohol use frequently referenced adolescents myspace profiles across several sociodemographic communities motivations associations consequences regarding alcohol use referenced myspace appear consistent previous studies adolescent alcohol use references may potent source influence adolescents particularly given created displayed peers