Defense Date

3-29-2024

Graduation Date

Spring 5-10-2024

Availability

Immediate Access

Submission Type

thesis

Degree Name

MA

Department

Graduate Center for Social and Public Policy

School

McAnulty College and Graduate School of Liberal Arts

Committee Chair

Cathleen J. Appelt

Committee Member

Michael D. Irwin

Committee Member

Mai-Ly N. Steers

Keywords

alcohol, alcohol-related content, drinking, self-expansion theory, symbolic interactionism, college students, closeness, inclusion of other in self

Abstract

Heavy drinking among young adults is a serious, longstanding public health issue. College students are particularly vulnerable to a culture of intoxication that promotes excessive drinking, which has been linked to severe consequences such as sexual assaults, car accidents, and even death. An abundance of literature has found that students’ overestimations of peer drinking norms are associated with greater alcohol use and problems. Furthermore, research has established a strong linkage between students posting and viewing peers’ alcohol-related content (ARC) on social media and increased drinking. However, there is a dearth of studies examining how closeness to close friends on social media might impact the relationship between students’ perceptions of their close friends’ ARC posting behavior and drinking outcomes. Applying the sociological framework of symbolic interactionism and the theory of self-expansion, the present study sought to fill this gap by analyzing secondary data from a previous study pertaining to college students’ social media usage. Participants were recruited from a large, public commuter university in the southern US. The Daily Drinking Questionnaire was used to calculate drinks per week, and a single item from the Quantity-Frequency Index assessed participants’ peak drinks. Participants were also asked to rate how often they think their close friends post ARC to social media. Additionally, participants completed the Inclusion of Other in Self scale, which asked them to select the image that best described their relationship with their close friends on social media. Descriptive statistics revealed that responses for both outcome variables of drinks per week and peak drinks were positively skewed. Goodness of fit testing found that negative binomial models were most suitable for both drinking outcome variables. Significant and positive main effects of perceptions of close friends’ ARC and closeness to close friends on social media were observed for both drinks per week and peak drinks. Negative binomial regression analysis revealed that the relationship between perceptions of close friends’ ARC posting and peak drinks was moderated by closeness to close friends on social media such that perceptions of close friends’ ARC posts were associated with greater peak drinks, especially for students who felt less close to their close friends on social media. Based on symbolic interactionism and self-expansion theory, it may have been that students who felt less close to their close friends on social media may have paid greater attention to these friends’ ARC posts (i.e., these posts were more salient to them). However, because they did not feel as close to these close friends as they would have preferred, they may have sought approval from their close friends by drinking more after seeing these close friends’ ARC posts. Future studies could build on these findings by recruiting college students from multiple universities which span across a variety of sociocultural landscapes. Overall, the present study revealed that additional research is necessary to further understand the complex influence of closeness on the relationship between college students’ close friendships on social media and drinking behavior.

Language

English

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Sociology Commons

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