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Updated: May 25, 2025

Assessment of Social Transmission of Food Preferences Behaviors
Published on: January 25, 2018
Social Media Contagion of High-Risk Behaviors in Youth
Meredith Gansner1, Casey Berson2, Zainub Javed2
1Department of Psychiatry, Boston Children's Hospital, 300 Longwood Avenue, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
Abstract:
As in traditional media, the depiction of ideas and behaviors on social media can influence viewers to adopt them. Social media may be particularly influential because the platforms are highly engaging, reach a vast audience, and personalize user experience to feature content most likely to affect the individual user. Numerous high-risk adolescent behaviors have been linked to viewing related social media content, but the extent to which they are the cause of and caused by content exposure remains unknown. Pediatric providers are advised to adopt standardized approaches to the prevention and management of social media contagion in clinical practice.
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