Trial reportJournal of studies on alcohol and drugs2014
"I will take a shot for every 'like' I get on this status": posting alcohol-related Facebook content is linked to drinking outcomes.
Trial report in Journal of studies on alcohol and drugs, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 38 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
38 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 94 citations in OpenAlex.
- Social Media Usage and Development of Psychiatric Disorders in Childhood and Adolescence: A Review.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2020Pooled it
- Meta-Analysis of the Association of Alcohol-Related Social Media Use with Alcohol Consumption and Alcohol-Related Problems in Adolescents and Young Adults.Alcoholism, clinical and experimental research · 2018Pooled it
- A randomized controlled trial of social media interventions for risky drinking among adolescents and emerging adults.Drug and alcohol dependence · 2022Trial
- Motives for posting and deleting alcohol-related content on social media: Longitudinal associations with behavior among adolescents and young adults.Addictive behaviors · 2026Article
- Qualitative analysis of how U.S. college students construct their alcohol-related content identities via social media.Substance abuse treatment, prevention, and policy · 2025Article
- Associations between posting about alcohol on social networking sites and alcohol-induced blackouts in a sample of young adults not in 4-year college.Psychology of addictive behaviors : journal of the Society of Psychologists in Addictive Behaviors · 2025Article
- The Relationship Between Alcohol-Related Content on Social Media and Alcohol Outcomes in Young Adults: A Scoping Review.Alcohol research : current reviews · 2025Article
- Keeping you connected or keeping you addicted? Weekly use of social media platforms is associated with hazardous alcohol use and problem gambling among adults.Alcohol and alcoholism (Oxford, Oxfordshire) · 2024Article
- Do you 'like' problems? The linkage between college students' interactions with alcohol-related content on social media and their alcohol-related problems.Drug and alcohol review · 2024Article
- Effect of Technology and Digital Media Use on Adolescent Health and Development: Protocol for a Multimethod Longitudinal Study.JMIR research protocols · 2023Article
- "Follow my Finsta": Drinking trajectories in relation to auxiliary Instagram accounts.Journal of American college health : J of ACH · 2023Article
- Development and validation of the alcohol-related content poster prototype scale: Exploring the impact of social media prototypes on college students' drinking.Alcohol, clinical & experimental research · 2023Article
- Capturing the bigger picture: A gestalt of general and alcohol-specific social media usage during the transition to college as a predictor of first-year alcohol use and consequences.Addictive behaviors · 2023Article
- The alcohol self-presentation model: Using thematic qualitative analysis to elucidate how college students self-present via alcohol-related social media posts.Drug and alcohol review · 2022Article
- #BingeDrinking-Using Social Media to Understand College Binge Drinking: Qualitative Study.JMIR human factors · 2022Article
- Using Facebook language to predict and describe excessive alcohol use.Alcoholism, clinical and experimental research · 2022Article
- Likelihood of Posting Alcohol-Related Content on Social Networking Sites - Measurement Development and Initial Validation.Substance use & misuse · 2022Article
- An examination of the prospective associations between objectively assessed exposure to alcohol-related Instagram content, alcohol-specific cognitions, and first-year college drinking.Addictive behaviors · 2021Article
- Binge Drinking and Obesity-Related Eating: The Moderating Roles of the Eating Broadcast Viewing Experience among Korean Adults.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2021Article
- Double Vision on Social Media: How Self-Generated Alcohol-Related Content Posts Moderate the Link between Viewing Others' Posts and Drinking.Journal of health communication · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
objectiveThis study investigated whether self-reports of alcohol-related postings on Facebook by oneself or one's Facebook friends were related to common motives for drinking and were uniquely predictive of self-reported alcohol outcomes (alcohol consumption, problems, and cravings).
methodPacific Northwest undergraduates completed a survey of alcohol outcomes, drinking motives, and alcohol-related Facebook postings. Participants completed the survey online as part of a larger study on alcohol use and cognitive associations. Participants were randomly selected through the university registrar's office and consisted of 1,106 undergraduates (449 men, 654 women, 2 transgender, 1 declined to answer) between the ages of 18 and 25 years (M = 20.40, SD = 1.60) at a large university in the Pacific Northwest. Seven participants were excluded from analyses because of missing or suspect data.
resultsAlcohol-related postings on Facebook were significantly correlated with social, enhancement, conformity, and coping motives for drinking (all ps < .001). After drinking motives were controlled for, self-alcohol-related postings independently and positively predicted the number of drinks per week, alcohol-related problems, risk of alcohol use disorders, and alcohol cravings (all ps < .001). In contrast, friends' alcohol-related postings only predicted the risk of alcohol use disorders (p < .05) and marginally predicted alcohol-related problems (p = .07).
conclusionsPosting alcohol-related content on social media platforms such as Facebook is associated with common motivations for drinking and is, in itself, a strong predictive indicator of drinking outcomes independent of drinking motives. Moreover, self-related posting activity appears to be more predictive than Facebook friends' activity. These findings suggest that social media platforms may be a useful target for future preventative and intervention efforts.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.