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. 2024;59(6):971-976.
doi: 10.1080/10826084.2024.2310501. Epub 2024 Feb 9.

Social Media Use and Alcohol Sipping in Early Adolescents: A Prospective Cohort Study

Jason M Nagata  1 , Omar M Sajjad  2 , Natalia Smith  1 , Gabriel Zamora  1 , Sanya Dhama  1 , Abubakr A A Al-Shoaibi  1 , Kyle T Ganson  3 , Alexander Testa  4 , Megan A Moreno  5 , Orsolya Kiss  6 , Fiona C Baker  6   7 , Dylan B Jackson  8
Affiliations

Social Media Use and Alcohol Sipping in Early Adolescents: A Prospective Cohort Study

Jason M Nagata et al. Subst Use Misuse. 2024.

Abstract

Background: Social media can influence alcohol initiation behaviors such as sipping, which can lead to future adverse alcohol-related outcomes. Few studies have examined the role of problematic social media use, characterized by addiction, mood modification, tolerance, withdrawal, conflict, and relapse, especially in early adolescence.

Objective: To examine the prospective association between social media use and sipping alcohol in a nationwide sample of early adolescents, and the extent to which problematic social media use mediates the association.

Methods: We analyzed prospective data from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study (N = 7514; ages 9-10 years at baseline; 2016-2018) to estimate associations between social media time (Year 1) and alcohol sipping (Year 3) using modified Poisson regression, adjusting for confounders and testing problematic social media use (Year 2) as a mediator.

Results: Social media time (Year 1) was prospectively associated with 1.31 (95% confidence interval 1.20-1.43) times higher risk of new-onset sipping (Year 3). The association between social media time and new-onset alcohol sipping was partially mediated by problematic social media use at Year 2 (25.0% reduction in the association between the former two factors after adding problematic social media use, p = 0.002).

Conclusions: Time spent on social media was associated with a higher risk of alcohol sipping in a diverse national sample of early adolescents, and the association was partially mediated by problematic social media use. Media literacy education and family media use plans could advise early adolescents about exposure to alcohol content on social media and warning signs for problematic use.

Keywords: Social media; adolescent; alcohol; sipping; substance use.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of interests: The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of this paper.

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