Nearly all U.S. emerging adults use social media at least daily, and most discuss their offline activities online, including their alcohol misuse. As a result, developing evidence finds a correlation between social media use and offline alcohol drinking, suggesting that social media may be a novel risk factor for alcohol misuse. However, there are conflicting findings about what specific function of social media use is risker – does the amount of time spent online or the types of online activities matter more? Our multidisciplinary team of human–computer interactionists, social workers, and public health scholars aimed to refine our understanding of the association between emerging adult social media use and alcohol misuse. To do so, we conceptualized social media use as a multidimensional construct, examining how much time emerging adults spend online (i.e., ) and their different online activities (i.e., , such as posting pictures or reacting to posted content [e.g., liking shared pictures]). Taking this conceptualization a step further, we distinguished general online activities (i.e., , such as sharing pictures of food) from those explicitly related to offline alcohol consumption (i.e., , such as sharing a video of someone drinking alcohol at a party). Finally, we examined if different levels of these three conceptualizations of social media use were risk factors for alcohol misuse and related negative consequences. We collected survey data from 249 emerging adults on Amazon Mechanical Turk. Using latent profile analyses, we attempted to distinguish the different ways we conceptualized social media use (i.e., screen time from general social media engagement and alcohol-related social media engagement.) We then examined whether significant differences existed between identified profiles and various alcohol-related outcomes in a typical and heavy drinking week. We identified 3-profile solutions for both screen time (low, medium, and high) and general social media engagement (minimum, moderate, and high) and a 2-profile solution for alcohol-related social media engagement (minimal and moderate). When we assessed for alcohol risk, screen time was not related to drinking at all (neither frequency nor quantity), not even for emerging adults who reported using social media almost constantly. However, during a heavy drinking week, those who moderately post alcohol-related content online drank more heavily and had more binge drinking days. Notably, and contrary to previous research, emerging adults who reported high general social media engagement were most at risk for binge drinking and experiencing more alcohol-related negative consequences. Findings underscore the importance of considering various forms of social media engagement – and not screen time – when studying the harms associated with using social media, including offline risk-taking behaviors like alcohol misuse. Results indicate that research, interventions, and clinical practice that target and treat emerging adult alcohol misuse should assess their social media behavior, concentrating on their engagement. This is especially true for the highest general engaging emerging adults who almost constantly post, respond, and react while online; these individuals might be the most at-risk and need support.

中文翻译：

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新兴成年人的社交媒体参与和酒精滥用：多维、以人为本的风险分析

几乎所有美国新兴成年人至少每天使用社交媒体，并且大多数人在网上讨论他们的线下活动，包括酗酒。因此，越来越多的证据发现社交媒体的使用与线下饮酒之间存在相关性，这表明社交媒体可能是酗酒的新风险因素。然而，关于社交媒体使用的哪些特定功能会带来风险，存在相互矛盾的发现——上网时间长短还是在线活动类型更重要？我们的多学科团队由人机交互学家、社会工作者和公共卫生学者组成，旨在加深我们对新兴成人社交媒体使用与酒精滥用之间关系的理解。为此，我们将社交媒体使用概念化为多维结构，检查新兴成年人在网上花费的时间（即，）以及他们不同的在线活动（即，例如发布图片或对发布的内容做出反应[例如，喜欢共享图片] ]）。将这一概念更进一步，我们将一般在线活动（即，例如分享食物图片）与那些与线下饮酒明确相关的活动（即，例如分享某人在聚会上喝酒的视频）区分开来。最后，我们研究了这三种社交媒体使用概念的不同程度是否是酒精滥用和相关负面后果的风险因素。我们在 Amazon Mechanical Turk 上收集了 249 名新兴成年人的调查数据。使用潜在档案分析，我们试图区分我们概念化社交媒体使用的不同方式（即，一般社交媒体参与和与酒精相关的社交媒体参与的屏幕时间）。然后，我们检查了识别的档案和各种酒精相关的档案之间是否存在显着差异。典型的酗酒周的相关结果。我们确定了针对屏幕时间（低、中和高）和一般社交媒体参与度（最低、中等和高）的 3 个配置文件解决方案，以及针对与酒精相关的社交媒体参与度（最低和中等）的 2 个配置文件解决方案。当我们评估酒精风险时，屏幕时间与饮酒根本无关（无论是频率还是数量），甚至对于几乎经常使用社交媒体的新兴成年人来说也是如此。然而，在酗酒的一周里，那些在网上适度发布与酒精相关的内容的人饮酒量更大，并且酗酒的日子也更多。值得注意的是，与之前的研究相反，社交媒体参与度较高的新兴成年人最有可能酗酒并经历更多与酒精相关的负面后果。研究结果强调，在研究与使用社交媒体相关的危害（包括酗酒等线下冒险行为）时，考虑各种形式的社交媒体参与（而不是屏幕时间）的重要性。结果表明，研究、干预措施、针对和治疗新出现的成人酒精滥用的临床实践应评估他们的社交媒体行为，重点关注他们的参与度。对于最普遍参与的新兴成年人来说尤其如此，他们几乎不断地在网上发帖、回复和反应；这些人可能面临最大的风险并需要支持。