Exposure to specific types of alcohol-related SNS content and adolescents’ (underage) drinking: A two-wave daily diary study

Adolescents encounter various types of alcohol-related posts on social media, but little research has distinguished between them. Yet, building on social modeling processes, alcohol posts showing friends (i.e. friend-focused) vs. solely focusing on alcohol (i.e. alcohol-focused) might differently affect adolescents’ drinking behavior. In addition, most research on the topic has ignored short-term within-person effects and possible age-related differences. This two-wave daily diary study among Belgian adolescents (N = 266, M_age = 15.83), therefore, examines how exposure to friend-focused vs. alcohol-focused posts predicts adolescents’ drinking behavior while also considering the moderating effect of the legal drinking age. The results show that exposure to friend-focused – but not alcohol-focused posts – increased adolescents’ chances of drinking on both the between and daily within-person levels. However, the within-person results appeared to be conditional because the probability to drink after seeing friend-focused posts increased for adolescents below 16 years of age but decreased for adolescents above 16 years of age. Theoretical and practical implications of this research are discussed.