Peer-to-Peer Social Media as an Effective Prevention Strategy: Quasi-Experimental Evaluation

Area of Science:

• Adolescent Health
• Public Health Interventions
• Social Media in Prevention

Background:

• Adolescent substance use remains high, with increasing social acceptance of marijuana and prescription opioids.
• Social media presents a cost-effective channel for disseminating drug prevention messages to youth.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the impact of the Living the Example (LTE) program on adolescent drug use intentions.
• To assess the effectiveness of social media-based prevention messages delivered by youth ambassadors.

Main Methods:

• A quasi-experimental design was used in 3 Maryland high schools with 826 freshmen surveyed at baseline, midpoint, and endpoint.
• Ordinal logistic regressions analyzed the association between LTE exposure and 8 drug use intentions, controlling for covariates.
• Intervention effects were examined using an interaction term for study wave.

Main Results:

• LTE exposure significantly reduced intentions for all 8 measured drug use variables (P<.05).
• Boys showed a greater reduction in drug use intentions compared to girls.
• Significant reductions in 30-day drug use intentions were observed between survey waves 2 and 3.

Conclusions:

• The Living the Example program demonstrates a protective effect, reducing adolescent drug use intentions.
• Findings suggest LTE is a potent social media strategy for substance use prevention in adolescents.
• Results indicate a stronger LTE effect compared to previous pilot studies.