Adolescents' Drinking Behavior Off- and Online: Disentangling Exposure Effects and Selective Exposure in Networked Communication Structures.

This article applies a network approach to better understand the often-demonstrated link between adolescents' drinking behavior and their exposure to alcohol-related content on social media. Focusing on social dynamics among adolescents and their peers, we investigate the causes and consequences of exposure to individual peers who share alcohol-related content online. Drawing on social network literature and the perspective of networked communication online, we distinguish between exposure effects and selective exposure as the two core dynamics that can explain the association between drinking behavior and exposure to alcohol-related content online. Based on a two-wave network survey among adolescents aged 14 to 17 (n = 277), we applied a longitudinal network analysis to test both dynamics simultaneously. The findings indicate no exposure effects but robust evidence for selective exposure. This means that drinking adolescents are more likely to become exposed to peers who post alcohol-related content. The stochastic actor-oriented model hereby controls for rivaling explanations, such as the tendency to be exposed to friends, classmates, and peers of the same gender. In addition to these empirical findings, we discuss the value of the network approach, outlining the implications for future research and prevention strategies.

COVID-19 vaccination and changes in preventive behaviours: findings from the 2021 vaccine roll-out in Switzerland.

BACKGROUND: Behavioural, environmental, social and systems interventions (BESSIs) remain important for controlling the COVID-19 pandemic in addition to vaccination. However, people's adoption of BESSIs may decrease as vaccination rates increase due to reductions in the perceived threat of disease, and changes in risk perceptions of behaviours that increase the chance of infection. Thus, we examined predictors of and changes over time in reports of mask wearing and physical distancing and whether changes in mask wearing and physical distancing differed by vaccination status during the main 2021 COVID-19 vaccine roll-out period in Switzerland. METHODS: Weekly online cross-sectional surveys (26 April 2021 to 1 August 2021) among people 18-79 years old in Switzerland, N = 6308 observations and 5511 cases. Logistic regression models using generalized estimating equations. RESULTS: Reports of being vaccinated increased, while mask wearing and physical distancing decreased over time. This decrease was similar regardless of vaccination status. However, the level of reported mask wearing and physical distancing remained higher among vaccinated people. Older, female, and Italian language region respondents also had higher odds of reporting mask wearing and physical distancing. CONCLUSIONS: Adoption of COVID-19 preventive behaviours is associated with demographics and vaccination status. Further research is needed to understand the reasons why people who are not vaccinated are less likely to adopt preventive behaviours, including that they may have fewer social and environmental opportunities to do so.

Social Distancing during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Switzerland: Health Protective Behavior in the Context of Communication and Perceptions of Efficacy, Norms, and Threat.

The success of health protection measures depends on public compliance. This paper aims to understand the influence of three different types of communication (i.e., news media, social media, and interpersonal communication) on people's engagement in health protective behavior during a public health crisis. Our C-ENT model of health protective behavior proposes that communication raises perceptions of efficacy, norms, and threat, which in turn influence health protective behavior (communication → efficacy, norms, threat: C-ENT). We test the model for the case of social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic, based on a representative online survey during the first week of the lockdown in Switzerland (N = 1005). The results support the C-ENT model and illustrate the important role of communication engagement during a public health crisis. News media use was associated with perceptions of behavior-related efficacy and norms and disease-related threat, and these perceptions were positively associated with compliance with social distancing. Social media use and interpersonal communication were related with perceived norms. Social media use was negatively and interpersonal communication positively associated with health behavior-supporting normative perceptions. Our findings suggest taking the distinct pattern among communication types (i.e., news media, social media, and interpersonal communication), perceptions, and behavior into account in order to understand existing dependencies and design respective communication strategies.

Social Media Use in the Context of Drinking Onset: The Mutual Influences of Social Media Effects and Selectivity.

The article aims to provide a profound understanding of the multifaceted role of adolescents' social media use in the context of drinking onset. It differentiates between exposure and sharing effects from social media content on drinking behavior and, conversely, exposure to and sharing of alcohol-related content due to drinking in the initiation phase of regular alcohol consumption. We tested our hypotheses based on a two-wave survey among adolescents aged 13 to 17 and focused on those who had not yet been regular drinkers at the first wave of data collection (n = 406). Based on a cross-lagged panel model, we found that exposure to alcohol-related content (exposure effect) as well as the sharing of such content (sharing effect) affected drinking behavior, and that drinking behavior resulted in the sharing of alcohol-related content on social media (selective sharing). We discuss a self-concept verification spiral at the individual level and a social influence spiral at the social level to assess possible risk-reinforcing dynamics.