Abstract
Adolescents’ media environment offers information about who uses substances and what happens as a result—how youth interpret these messages likely determines their impact on normative beliefs about alcohol and tobacco use. The Message Interpretation Processing (MIP) theory predicts that substance use norms are influenced by cognitions associated with the interpretation of media messages. This cross-sectional study examined whether high school adolescents’ (n = 817, 48 % female, 64 % white) media-related cognitions (i.e., similarity, realism, desirability, identification) were related to their perceptions of substance use norms. Results revealed that adolescents’ media-related cognitions explained a significant amount of variance in perceived social approval for and estimated prevalence of peer alcohol and tobacco use, above and beyond previous use and demographic covariates. Compared to prevalence norms, social approval norms were more closely related to adolescents’ media-related cognitions. Results suggest that critical thinking about media messages can inhibit normative perceptions that are likely to increase adolescents’ interest in alcohol and tobacco use.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Arnett, J. J. (1995). Adolescents’ uses of media for self-socialization. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 24(5), 519–533. doi:10.1007/BF01537054.
Austin, E. W., Chen, M. -J., & Grube, J. W. (2006). How does alcohol advertising influence underage drinking? The role of desirability, identification and skepticism. Journal of Adolescent Health, 38(4), 376–384. doi:10.1016/j.jadohealth.2005.08.017.
Austin, E. W., & Johnson, K. K. (1997). Immediate and delayed effects of media literacy training on third grader’s decision making for alcohol. Health Communication, 9(4), 323–349. doi:10.1207/s15327027hc0904_3.
Austin, E. W., & Meili, H. K. (1994). Effects of interpretations of televised alcohol portrayals on children’s alcohol beliefs. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 38(4), 417–435. doi:10.1080/08838159409364276.
Bandura, A. (1986). Social foundations of thought and action. Endglewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
Barrientos-Gutierrez, T., Barrientos-Gutierrez, I., Lazcano-Ponce, E., & Thrasher, J. F. (2012). Tobacco content in video games: 1994–2011. The Lancet Oncology, 13(3), 237–238. doi:10.1016/S1470-2045(12)70099-2.
Bergamini, E., Demidenko, E., & Sargent, J. D. (2013). Trends in tobacco and alcohol brand placements in popular US movies, 1996 through 2009. JAMA Pediatrics, 167(7), 634–639. doi:10.1001/jamapediatrics.2013.393.
Blakemore, S. J., & Mills, K. L. (2014). Is adolescence a sensitive period for sociocultural processing? Annual Review of Psychology, 65, 187–207. doi:10.1146/annurev-psych-010213-115202.
Botvin, G. J., Botvin, E. M., Baker, E., Dusenbury, L., & Goldberg, C. J. (1992). The false consensus effect: Predicting adolescents’ tobacco use from normative expectations. Psychological Reports, 70(1), 171–178. doi:10.2466/pr0.1992.70.1.171.
Brener, N. D., Kann, L., McManus, T., Kinchen, S. A., Sundberg, E. C., & Ross, J. G. (2002). Reliability of the 1999 youth risk behavior survey questionnaire. Journal of Adolescent Health, 31(4), 336–342. doi:10.1016/S1054-139X(02)00339-7.
Bronfenbrenner, U. (1979). The ecology of human development. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Cavazos-Rehg, P. A., Krauss, M. J., Sowles, S. J., & Bierut, L. J. (2015). “Hey everyone, I’m drunk”. An evaluation of drinking-related twitter chatter. Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, 76(4), 635–639. doi:10.15288/jsad.2015.76.635.
Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth. (2012). Youth exposure to alcohol advertising on television, 2001 to 2009. Washington, DC: Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth. http://www.camy.org/_docs/resources/reports/youth-exposure-alcohol-advertising-tv-01-09-full-report.pdf.
Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth (2016). Powdered alcohol fact sheet. http://www.camy.org/resources/fact-sheets/powdered-alcohol/.
Centers for Disease Control (2013). Alcohol and public health: Alcohol-related disease impact (ARDI). http://nccd.cdc.gov/DPH_ARDI/Default/Default.aspx.
Chapman, S., & Davis, R. M. (1997). Smoking in movies: Is it a problem? Tobacco Control, 6(4), 269–271.
Chassin, L., Presson, C. C., Sherman, S. J., Montello, D., & McGrew, J. (1986). Changes in peer and parent influence during adolescence: Longitudinal versus cross-sectional perspectives on smoking initiation. Developmental Psychology, 22(3), 327–334. doi:10.1037/0012-1649.22.3.327.
Cialdini, R. B. (1984). Influence: The psychology of persuasion. Revised edition. New York, NY: Harper Collins.
Cialdini, R. B., & Goldstein, N. J. (2004). Social influence: Compliance and conformity. Annual Review of Psychology, 55, 591–621. doi:10.1146/annurev.psych.55.090902.142015.
Collins, L. M., Sussman, S., Rauch, J. M., Dent, C. W., Johnson, C. A., Hansen, W. B., & Flay, B. R. (1987). Psychosocialpredictors of young adolescent cigarette smoking: A sixteen-month, three-wave longitudinal study. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 17(6), 554–573. doi:10.1111/j.1559-1816.1987.tb00330.x.
Cranwell, J., Murray, R., Lewis, S., Leonardi-Bee, J., Dockrell, M., & Britton, J. (2015). Adolescents’ exposure to tobacco and alcohol content in YouTube music videos. Addiction, 110(4), 703–711. doi:10.1111/add.12835.
Dal Cin, S., Worth, K. A., Gerrard, M., Gibbons, F. X., Stoolmiller, M., Wills, T. A., & Sargent, J. D. (2009). Watching and drinking: Expectancies, prototypes, and friends’ alcohol use mediate the effect of exposure to alcohol use in movies on adolescent drinking. Health Psychology, 28(4), 473–483. doi:10.1037/a0014777.
D’Amico, E. J., & McCarthy, D. M. (2006). Escalation and initiation of younger adolescents’ substance use: The impact of perceived peer use. Journal of Adolescent Health, 39(4), 481–487. doi:10.1016/j.jadohealth.2006.02.010.
DeJong, W., Schneider, S. K., Towvim, L. G., Murphy, M. J., Doerr, E. E., Simonsen, N. R., Mason, K. E., & Scribner, R. A. (2006). A multisite randomized trial of social norms marketing campaigns to reduce college student drinking. Journal of Studies on Alcohol, 67(6), 868–879. doi:10.15288/jsa.2006.67.868.
DeWit, D. J., Adlaf, E. M., Offord, D. R., & Ogborne, A. C. (2000). Age at first alcohol use: A risk factor for the development of alcohol disorders. American Journal of Psychiatry, 157(5), 745–750. doi:10.1176/appi.ajp.157.5.745.
Eriksen, M., Mackay, J., Schluger, N., Islami, F., & Drope, J. (2015). The tobacco atlas, 5th edn. www.TobaccoAtlas.org. Accessed 5 Oct 2015.
Fleming, K., Thorson, E., & Atkin, C. K. (2004). Alcohol advertising exposure and perceptions: Links with alcohol expectancies and intentions to drink or drinking in underaged youth and young adults. Journal of Health Communication, 9(1), 3–29. doi:10.1080/10810730490271665.
Foxcroft, D. R., Moreira, M. T., Almeida Santimano, N. M., & Smith, L. A. (2015). Social norms information for alcohol misuse in university and college students. The Cochrane Library. doi:10.1002/14651858.CD006748.pub3/full.
Gardner, M., & Steinberg, L. (2005). Peer influence on risk taking, risk preference, and risky decision making in adolescence and adulthood: An experimental study. Developmental Psychology, 41(4), 625–635. doi:10.1037/0012-1649.41.4.625.
Gerrard, M., Gibbons, F. X., Benthin, A. C., & Hessling, R. M. (1996). A longitudinal study of the reciprocal nature of risk behaviors and cognitions in adolescents: What you do shapes what you think, and vice versa. Health Psychology, 15(5), 344–354. doi:10.1037/0278-6133.15.5.344.
Gerrard, M., Gibbons, F. X., Reis-Bergan, M., Trudeau, L., Vande Lune, L. S., & Buunk, B. (2002). Inhibitory effects of drinker and nondrinker prototypes on adolescent alcohol consumption. Health Psychology, 21(6), 601–609. doi:10.1037/0278-6133.21.6.601.
Gibbons, F. X., & Gerrard, M. (1995). Predicting young adults’ health risk behavior. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 69(3), 505–517. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.69.3.505.
Green, M. C., & Clark, J. L. (2013). Transportation into narrative worlds: Implications for entertainment media influences on tobacco use. Addiction, 108(3), 477–484. doi:10.1111/j.1360-0443.2012.04088.x.
Grenard, J. L., Dent, C. W., & Stacy, A. W. (2013). Exposure to alcohol advertisements and teenage alcohol-related problems. Pediatrics, 131, e369–e379. doi:10.1542/peds.2012-1480.
Griffiths, R., & Casswell, S. (2010). Intoxigenic digital spaces? Youth, social networking sites and alcohol marketing. Drug and Alcohol Review, 29(5), 525–530. doi:10.1111/j.1465-3362.2010.00178.x.
Gunther, A. C., Bolt, D., Borzekowski, D. L. G., Liebhart, J. L., & Dillard, J. P. (2006). Presumed influence on peer norms: How mass media indirectly affect adolescent smoking. Journal of Communication, 56(1), 52–68. doi:10.1111/j.1460-2466.2006.00002.x.
Huang, G. C., Unger, J. B., Soto, D., Fujimoto, K., Pentz, M. A., Jordan-Marsh, M., & Valente, T. W. (2014). Peer influences: The impact of online and offline friendship networks on adolescent smoking and alcohol use. Journal of Adolescent Health, 54(5), 508–514. doi:10.1016/j.jadohealth.2013.07.001.
Jernigan, D., Ross, C., Ostroff, J., McKnight-Eily, L., & Brewer, R. D. (2013). Youth exposure to alcohol advertising on television—25 markets, United States. A Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 62, 877–880. http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm6244a3.htm?s_cid=mm6244a3_w.
Jernigan, D. H., & Rushman, A. E. (2014). Measuring youth exposure to alcohol marketing on social networking sites: Challenges and prospects. Journal of Public Health Policy, 35(1), 91–104. doi:10.1057/jphp.2013.45.
Johnston, L. D., O’Malley, P. M., Miech, R. A., Bachman, J. G., & Schulenberg, J. E. (2016). Monitoring the future national survey results on drug use, 1975-2015: Overview, key findings on adolescent drug use. Ann Arbor, MI: Institute for Social Research, The University of Michigan.
Juvonen, J., Martino, S. C., Ellickson, P. L., & Longshore, D. (2007). “But others do it!”: Do misperceptions of schoolmate alcohol and marijuana use predict subsequent drug use among young adolescents? Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 37(4), 740–758. doi:10.1111/j.1559-1816.2007.00183.x.
Kendler, K. S., Myers, J., Damaj, M. I., & Chen, X. (2013). Early smoking onset and risk for subsequent nicotine dependence: A monozygotic co-twin control study. American Journal of Psychiatry, 170, 408–413. doi:10.1176/appi.ajp.2012.12030321.
Keyes, K. M., Schulenberg, J. E., O’Malley, P. M., Johnston, L. D., Bachman, J. G., Li, G., & Hasin, D. (2012). Birth cohort effects on adolescent alcohol use: The influence of social norms from 1976 to 2007. Archives of General Psychiatry, 69(12), 1304–1313. doi:10.1001/archgenpsychiatry.2012.787.
Kuther, T. L., & Higgins-D’Alessandro, A. (2003). Attitudinal and normative predictors of alcohol use by older adolescents and young adults. Journal of Drug Education, 33(1), 71–90. doi:10.2190/G0PR-XVHT-JL92-HE8T.
LaBrie, J. W., Hummer, J. F., Neighbors, C., & Larimer, M. E. (2010). Whose opinion matters? The relationship between injunctive norms and alcohol consequences in college students. Addictive Behaviors, 35(4), 343–349. doi:10.1016/j.addbeh.2009.12.003.
Lewis, M. A., Neighbors, C., Oster-Aaland, L., Kirkeby, B. S., & Larimer, M. E. (2007). Indicated prevention for incoming freshmen: Personalized normative feedback and high-risk drinking. Addictive Behaviors, 32(11), 2495–2508. doi:10.1016/j.addbeh.2007.06.019.
Litt, D. M., & Stock, M. L. (2011). Adolescent alcohol-related risk cognitions: The roles of social norms and social networking sites. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 25(4), 708–713. doi:10.1037/a0024226.
Marks, G., Graham, J. W., & Hansen, W. B. (1992). Social projection and social conformity in adolescent alcohol use: A longitudinal analysis. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 18(1), 96–101. doi:10.1177/0146167292181014.
Nan, X., & Zhao, X. (2016). The mediating role of perceived descriptive and injunctive norms in the effects of media messages on youth smoking. Journal of Health Communication, 21, 56–66. doi:10.1080/10810730.2015.1023958.
Neighbors, C., Lee, C. M., Lewis, M. A., Fossos, N., & Larimer, M. E. (2007). Are social norms the best predictor of outcomes among heavy-drinking college students? Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, 68(4), 556–565. doi:10.15288/jsad.2007.68.556.
Olds, R. S., Thombs, D. L., & Tomasek, J. R. (2005). Relations between normative beliefs and initiation intentions toward cigarette, alcohol and marijuana. Journal of Adolescent Health, 37(1), 75.e7–75.e13. doi:10.1016/j.jadohealth.2004.09.020.
Osberg, T. M., Billingsley, K., Eggert, M., & Insana, M. (2012). From Animal House to Old School: A multiple mediation analysis of the association between college drinking movie exposure and freshman drinking and its consequences. Addictive Behaviors, 37(8), 922–930. doi:10.1016/j.addbeh.2012.03.030.
Page, R. M., Hammermeister, J., & Roland, M. (2002). Are high school students accurate or clueless in estimating substance use among peers? Adolescence, 37(147), 567–573.
Pedersen, E. R., Miles, J. N., Ewing, B. A., Shih, R. A., Tucker, J. S., & D’Amico, E. J. (2013). A longitudinal examination of alcohol, marijuana, and cigarette perceived norms among middle school adolescents. Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 133(2), 647–653. doi:10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2013.08.008.
Perkins, H. W., & Craig, D. W. (2006). A successful social norms campaign to reduce alcohol misuse among college student-athletes. Journal of Studies on Alcohol, 67(6), 880–889. doi:10.15288/jsa.2006.67.880.
PEW Research Center (2015). Teens, social media & technology overview: Smartphones facilitate shifts in communication landscape for teens. http://www.pewinternet.org/2015/04/09/teens-social-media-technology-2015.
Prentice, D. A., & Miller, D. T. (1993). Pluralistic ignorance and alcohol use on campus: Some consequences of misperceiving the social norm. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 64(2), 243–256. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.64.2.243.
Primack, B. A., Dalton, M. A., Carroll, M. V., Agarwal, A. A., & Fine, M. J. (2008). Content analysis of tobacco, alcohol, and other drugs in popular music. Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, 162(2), 169–175. doi:10.1001/archpediatrics.2007.27.
Primack, B. A., Switzer, G. E., & Dalton, M. A. (2007). Improving measurement of normative beliefs involving smoking among adolescents. Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, 161(5), 434–439. doi:10.1001/archpedi.161.5.434.
Ridout, B., Campbell, A., & Ellis, L. (2012). “Off your Face (book)”: Alcohol in online social identity construction and its relation to problem drinking in university students. Drug and Alcohol Review, 31(1), 20–26. doi:10.1111/j.1465-3362.2010.00277.x.
Rideout, V. J., Foehr, U. G., & Roberts, D. F. (2010). Generation M2: Media in the lives of 8- to 18-year-olds. A Kaiser Family Foundation study (Publication #8010). www.ktf.og.
Ross, L., Greene, D., & House, P. (1977). The “false consensus effect”: An egocentric bias in social perception and attribution processes. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 13(3), 279–301. doi:10.1016/0022-1031(77)90049-X.
Sargent, J. D., Dalton, M. A., Beach, M. L., Mott, L. A., Tickle, J. J., Ahrens, M. B., & Heatherton, T. F. (2002). Viewing tobacco use in movies: Does it shape attitudes that mediate adolescent smoking? American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 22(3), 137–145. doi:10.1016/S0749-3797(01)00434-2.
Scull, T. M., Kupersmidt, J. B., & Erausquin, J. T. (2014). The impact of media-related cognitions on children’s substance use outcomes in the context of parental and peer substance use. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 43(5), 717–728. doi:10.1007/s10964-013-0012-8.
Scull, T. M., Kupersmidt, J. B., Parker, A. E., Elmore, K. C., & Benson, J. W. (2010). Adolescents’ media-related cognitions and substance use in the context of parental and peer influences. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 39(9), 981–998. doi:10.1007/s10964-009-9455-3.
Sebastian, C., Viding, E., Williams, K. D., & Blakemore, S. -J. (2010). Social brain development and the affective consequences of ostracism in adolescence. Brain and Cognition, 72, 134–145. doi:10.1016/j.bandc.2009.06.008.
Seidenberg, A. B., Rodgers, E. J., Rees, V. W., & Connolly, G. N. (2012). Youth access, creation, and content of smokeless tobacco (“dip”) videos in social media. Journal of Adolescent Health, 50(4), 334–338. doi:10.1016/j.jadohealth.2011.09.003.
Singh, T., Mrynak, K., Arrazola, R. A., Cox, S., Rolle, I. V., & King, B. A. (2016). Vital signs: Exposure to electronic cigarette advertising among middle school and high school students—United States, 2014. A Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm6452a3.htm?s_cid=mm6452a3_w.
Snyder, M. L., & Wicklund, R. A. (1981). Attribute ambiguity. New Directions in Attribution Research, 3, 197–221.
Song, A. V., Morrell, H. E. R., Cornell, J. L., Ramos, M. E., Biehl, M., Kropp, R. Y., & Halpern-Felsher, B. L. (2009). Perceptions of smoking-related risks and benefits as predictors of adolescent smoking initiation. American Journal of Public Health, 99(3), 487–492. doi:10.2105/AJPH.2008.137679.
Strasburger, V. C., & Wilson, B. J. (2002). Children, adolescents, and the media. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Teunissen, H. A., Spijkerman, R., Prinstein, M. J., Cohen, G. L., Engels, R. C., & Scholte, R. H. (2012). Adolescents’ conformity to their peers’ pro-alcohol and anti-alcohol norms: The power of popularity. Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, 36(7), 1257–1267. doi:10.1111/j.1530-0277.2011.01728.x.
Tickle, J. J., Hull, J. G., Sargent, J. D., Dalton, M. A., & Heatherton, T. F. (2006). A structural equation model of social influences and exposure to media smoking on adolescent smoking. Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 28(2), 117–129. doi:10.1207/s15324834basp2802_2.
Tickle, J. J., Sargent, J. D., Dalton, M. A., Beach, M. L., & Heatherton, T. F. (2001). Favourite movie stars, their tobacco use in contemporary movies, and its association with adolescent smoking. Tobacco Control, 10(1), 16–22. doi:10.1136/tc.10.1.16.
Tucker, J. S., Miles, J. N., & D’Amico, E. J. (2013). Cross-lagged associations between substance use-related media exposure and alcohol use during middle school. Journal of Adolescent Health, 53(4), 460–464. doi:10.1016/j.jadohealth.2013.05.005.
Villanti, A., Boulay, M., & Juon, H. -S. (2011). Peer, parent and media influences on adolescent smoking by developmental stage. Addictive Behaviors, 36(1), 133–136. doi:10.1016/j.addbeh.2010.08.018.
Wills, T. A., Knight, R., Williams, R. J., Pagano, I., & Sargent, J. D. (2015). Risk factors for exclusive e-cigarette use and dual e-cigarette use and tobacco use in adolescents. Pediatrics, 135(1), e43–e51. doi:10.1542/peds.2014-0760.
Wills, T. A., Sargent, J. D., Stoolmiller, M., Gibbons, F. X., Worth, K. A., & Dal Cin, S. (2007). Movie exposure to smoking cues and adolescent smoking onset: A test for mediation through peer affiliations. Health Psychology, 26(6), 769–776. doi:10.1037/0278-6133.26.6.769.
Wiium, N., & Wold, B. (2009). An ecological system approach to adolescent smoking behavior. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 38(10), 1351–1363. doi:10.1007/s10964-008-9349-9.
Winpenny, E. M., Marteau, T. M., & Nolte, E. (2014). Exposure of children and adolescents to alcohol marketing on social media websites. Alcohol and Alcoholism, 49(2), 154–159. doi:10.1093/alcalc/agt174.
Acknowledgments
The authors want to thank the teachers and students who participated in this study.
Authors’ Contributions
KE conceived of the study, performed the statistical analyses, and drafted the manuscript; TMS conceived of the study, coordinated the data collection, participated in the design of the analyses and interpretation of the data, and helped to draft the manuscript; JBK conceived of the study, participated in the design of the analyses and interpretation of the data, and helped to draft the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Funding
This study was supported in part by funding from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (Award Number R44DA018495) to Dr. Kupersmidt.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of Interest
The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Ethical Approval
All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.
Informed Consent
Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Elmore, K., Scull, T.M. & Kupersmidt, J.B. Media as a “Super Peer”: How Adolescents Interpret Media Messages Predicts Their Perception of Alcohol and Tobacco Use Norms. J Youth Adolescence 46, 376–387 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-016-0609-9
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-016-0609-9