Related Experiment Video
Updated: Mar 8, 2026
05:40
The Motivation for Alcohol Reward: Predictors of Progressive-Ratio Intravenous Alcohol Self-Administration in Humans
Published on: April 28, 2022
3.6K
Alcohol-Related Facebook Activity Predicts Alcohol Use Patterns in College Students
Cecile A Marczinski1, Heather Hertzenberg1, Perilou Goddard1
1Department of Psychological Science, Northern Kentucky University, Highland Heights, KY, USA.
Addiction Research & Theory
|February 1, 2017
Summary
A new alcohol-related Facebook® activity (ARFA) questionnaire effectively predicts college students' recent alcohol use. This social media measure shows promise for identifying risky drinking behaviors.
Area of Science:
- Psychology
- Public Health
- Sociology
Background:
- College students are a demographic with high rates of alcohol consumption.
- Assessing alcohol use patterns in college students is crucial for public health interventions.
- Traditional methods for assessing alcohol use may not capture the nuances of modern social behaviors.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate the predictive validity of the alcohol-related Facebook® activity (ARFA) questionnaire.
- To determine if ARFA scores correlate with established measures of alcohol consumption in college students.
- To explore the role of impulsivity and social desirability in the relationship between ARFA scores and alcohol use.
Main Methods:
- Participants (N = 146) completed the 10-item ARFA questionnaire assessing recent alcohol-related Facebook® postings.
- Alcohol use was measured using the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT), Timeline Follow-Back (TLFB), and Personal Drinking Habits Questionnaire (PDHQ).
- Impulsivity (Barratt Impulsiveness Scale, BIS-11) and social desirability (Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale, MC-SDS) were also assessed.
Main Results:
- ARFA total scores significantly predicted recent drinking behaviors across AUDIT, TLFB, and PDHQ measures.
- Impulsivity and social desirability did not predict drinking behaviors when ARFA scores were included in regression analyses.
- The ARFA scale demonstrated utility in identifying recent alcohol consumption patterns.
Conclusions:
- The alcohol-related Facebook® activity (ARFA) questionnaire is a valid predictor of college student alcohol use.
- Social media activity, as measured by ARFA, can serve as a valuable research tool for identifying at-risk drinking behaviors.
- ARFA offers a novel approach to alcohol use assessment in the digital age.
More Related Videos
Related Concept Videos
02:05Self-Presentation: Self-Monitoring and Self-Handicapping
45.0K
People can go to great lengths to protect their self-image and present themselves in ways that they want others to see them. Sociologist Erving Goffman presented the idea that a person is like an actor on a stage. Calling his theory dramaturgy, Goffman believed that we use “impression management” to present ourselves to others as we hope to be perceived. Each situation is a new scene, and individuals perform different roles depending on who is present (Goffman, 1959). Think about...
45.0K
01:27CNS Depressants: Alcohol and Nicotine
1.5K
Ethanol, a clear colorless alcohol, has been consumed by humans for millennia, but its effects on the body are far from benign. At lower doses, it induces decreased inhibitions and loquaciousness, leading to its social appeal. However, it can cause severe consequences at higher doses, such as coma and respiratory depression, due to its zero-order elimination kinetics. Chronic ethanol abuse wreaks havoc on multiple organ systems, particularly the CNS and the liver. Abrupt cessation of ethanol...
1.5K
01:24Substance Use Disorders Affecting Sleep
502
Substance use disorders involve a pattern of using drugs more extensively than intended and continuing use despite harmful consequences. This includes legal substances like alcohol and nicotine, as well as illegal drugs. These disorders often involve both physical and psychological dependence, reflecting compulsive use of substances that significantly alter thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, contributing to a major public health issue.
Understanding the concepts of physical dependence,...
Understanding the concepts of physical dependence,...
502
01:50Cross-Sectional Research
12.8K
In cross-sectional research, a researcher compares multiple segments of the population at the same time. If they were interested in people's dietary habits, the researcher might directly compare different groups of people by age. Instead of following a group of people for 20 years to see how their dietary habits changed from decade to decade, the researcher would study a group of 20-year-old individuals and compare them to a group of 30-year-old individuals and a group of 40-year-old...
12.8K
01:03Mass Spectrometry: Alcohol Fragmentation
4.7K
Alcohols (R-OH) ionize to lose one non-bonded electron from the oxygen atom, forming molecular ions. Due to their tendency to fragment rapidly, the intensity of the molecular ion peak in the mass spectrum is weak or sometimes absent. The fragmentation patterns for alcohols occur in two ways, i.e. ⍺-cleavage and dehydration. During ⍺-cleavage, the bond at the ⍺-position adjacent to the hydroxyl group cleaves to give a resonance-stabilized cation and a radical. However, intramolecular...
4.7K
01:16Hypothesis Test for Test of Independence
8.3K
The test of independence is a chi-square-based test used to determine whether two variables or factors are independent or dependent. This hypothesis test is used to examine the independence of the variables. One can construct two qualitative survey questions or experiments based on the variables in a contingency table. The goal is to see if the two variables are unrelated (independent) or related (dependent). The null and alternative hypotheses for this test are:
H0: The two variables (factors)...
H0: The two variables (factors)...
8.3K