Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 13, 2026
Chronic Intermittent Ethanol Vapor Exposure Paired with Two-Bottle Choice to Model Alcohol Use Disorder
Published on: June 23, 2023
Characterizing In Vivo Exposure to Alcohol Content in the Media: Media Platform, Engagement, and Associations With
Kristina M Jackson1, Joy Gabrielli2, Suzanne M Colby3
1Rutgers Addiction Research Center, Department of Psychiatry, Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, Piscataway, New Jersey, USA.
Background:
Alcohol-related content in media is overwhelmingly presented positively, and exposure to this content is linked to adolescent drinking. Yet, less is known about how often adolescents encounter alcohol content via media, how exposure varies across platforms, and how adolescents typically engage with such content. We used ecological momentary assessment (EMA) methods to collect detailed, real-time data about alcohol-related content encountered across a variety of digital media sources.
Methods:
High school students recruited through social media (N = 302; mean age = 16.2; 63.9% female sex) completed three 21-day EMA bursts spaced 4 months apart. Participants reported alcohol-related content encountered via scheduled and self-initiated smartphone surveys, yielding 55,352 total reports, including 8792 with alcohol content. We fit multilevel models to evaluate momentary associations between exposure to alcohol content and cognitive outcomes (personal attitudes, perceived peer norms, beliefs that content promotes alcohol use).
Results:
Nearly all participants (99.3%) reported exposure to alcohol-related content during the monitoring period. The most common sources were Instagram (32.4% of alcohol reports), TikTok (18.1%), and YouTube (7.8%). About one-third of exposures originated from influencers; nearly half of YouTube and Instagram exposures involved industry sources. In-depth engagement (e.g., commenting) with content was rare, although engagement requiring minimal effort ("liking") was endorsed for 25.6% of content reports. Encountering alcohol content on Instagram and Snapchat was associated with personal disapproval of the content; there were few associations with perceived peer norms. Engagement significantly predicted more cognitions favoring alcohol.
Conclusions:
Adolescents frequently encounter alcohol content across diverse platforms, often from influencers and industry. Much of the content was believed to promote alcohol use. Although behavioral engagement was limited, exposure was linked to attitudes toward content encountered on some platforms. Greater understanding of components and contexts to be targeted for just-in-time interventions delivered in proximity to in vivo exposures can reduce risk for early alcohol engagement.
Related Concept Videos
02:05Self-Presentation: Self-Monitoring and Self-Handicapping
02:32Physical Properties of Alcohols and Phenols
Alcohols possess a higher boiling point than aliphatic hydrocarbons of similar...
01:27CNS Depressants: Alcohol and Nicotine
02:23Alcohols from Carbonyl Compounds: Reduction
Catalytic hydrogenation is similar to the reduction of an alkene or alkyne by adding H2 across the pi bond in the presence of transition metal catalysts like Raney Ni, Pd–C, Pt, or Ru. Aldehydes and ketones can be reduced by this method, often under mild to moderate heat (25–100°C) and...
02:31Protection of Alcohols
Protection
It defines a protecting group as the masking agent to make the more reactive species inert to a given set of conditions. This concept is depicted via the illustration of liquid flow through different outlets in an assembly of pipes. The analogy helps to understand the role...
02:15Preparation of Alcohols via Addition Reactions
The acid-catalyzed addition of water to the double bond of alkenes is a large-scale industrial method used to synthesize low-molecular-weight alcohols. An acidic atmosphere is required to allow the hydrogen in the water molecule to act as an electrophile and attack the double bond in an alkene. The addition of a proton to the double bond creates a carbocation intermediate. The proton preferentially bonds to the less substituted end of the double bond to create a more stable carbocation...