The Spiral of Positive Feedback: Go-Along Interviews About Adolescents’ Perceptions of and Reactions to Alcohol Posts on Social Media
| Date | 01 January 2022 |
| Author | Robyn Vanherle,Kathleen Beullens,Hanneke Hendriks |
| Published date | 01 January 2022 |
| DOI | 10.1177/00220426211041408 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Article
Journal of Drug Issues
2022, Vol. 52(1) 31–46
© The Author(s) 2021
Article reuse guidelines:
sagepub.com/journals-permissions
DOI: 10.1177/00220426211041408
journals.sagepub.com/home/jod
The Spiral of Positive
Feedback: Go-Along Interviews
About Adolescents’
Perceptions of and Reactions to
Alcohol Posts on Social Media
Robyn Vanherle
1
, Kathleen Beullens
1
, and Hanneke Hendriks
2
Abstract
Go-along interviews among adolescents (N= 26, M
age
= 16.31, SD = .83) were conducted to
examine how adolescents interpret alcohol posts in terms of appropriateness and how this, in
turn, plays a role in adolescents’reactions toward alcohol posts on public and private social me dia
entries. The findings of this study, first, indicate that alcohol posts were classified as appropriate or
inappropriate based on the amount of alcohol and the displayed behavior in the post. Second,
most posts, including inappropriate ones, received positive or no feedback. Moreover, adoles -
cents deliberately seemed to withhold negative feedback out of fear of being misjudged by peers.
Still, negative reactions were expressed more quickly in safer off- and online environments (i.e.,
face-to-face conversation and online chat messages) because they were visible to close friends
only. This is important in view of prevention as it unravels the interesting role of private en-
vironments in stimulating negative interpersonal communication.
Keywords
alcohol, adolescents, social media, interviews, spiral of silence, feedback, social norms,
intoxication
Introduction and Literature Review
According to a global report from the World Health Organization (2018), 64.2 million adolescents
(aged 15–19 years) stated that they have consumed alcohol and 13.6% confirmed to even engage
in heavy episodic drinking. One important factor that seems to further boost adolescents’drinking
practices appears to be the use of social networking sites (SNSs). That is, SNSs are frequently used
1
Leuven School for Mass Communication Research, KULeuven, Leuven, Belgium
2
Faculty of Social Sciences, Raboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
Corresponding Author:
Robyn Vanherle, Leuven School for Mass Communication Research, KULeuven, Parkstraat 45 (box 3603), Leuven 3000,
Belgium.
Email: robyn.vanherle@kuleuven.be
to elaborate on offline alcohol experiences by sharing alcohol posts (Barnes et al., 2015;Lyons,
Mccreanor, Goodwin, & Barnes, 2017), which often receive positive reactions from others in the
form of likes and comments (Boyle et al., 2018;Hendriks et al., 2018b). The sharing of alcohol
thus seems to be a pleasurable and positively embedded practice (Barnes et al., 2015;Brown,
2013). This is worrisome because research has shown that positive reactions to alcohol po sts can
be perceived as peer approval for consuming alcohol which, in turn, may impact adolescents’own
alcohol use (Boyle et al., 2018). The online endorsement of alcohol posts is, hence, not without
consequences.
However, despite research’s focus on positive reactions (Boyle et al., 2018;Hendriks et al.,
2018b), little is known about what SNS users exactly like or dislike in alcohol posts. Fo r example,
although content analyses have shown that SNS content varies from displaying moderate drinking
behaviors (e.g., pictures with alcohol in the background) to more extreme ones (e.g., drunk
pictures and drinking game pictures) (Hendriks et al., 2017,2018a), the question of how SNS
users exactly interpret these messages has received far less attention in the literature. Moreover,
most of the research on individuals’interpretations of and reactions to alcohol postings has been
conducted among emerging adults and college/university students (Brown & Gregg, 2012;
Niland, Lyons, Goodwin, & Hutton, 2014;Wolfer,2014,2017 ), thereby neglecting the vulnerable
period of adolescence.
As follows, our research, consisting of go-along interviews among adolescents aged 14–18
years, will contribute to the current literature (1) by examining how adolescents interpret different
alcohol posts in terms of appropriateness, (2) by providing an in-depth examination of how this
(in)appropriateness, in turn, plays a role in how and when adolescents’react to alcohol portrayals,
and (3) by being one of the first to also take private entries (e.g., online chat), which are more likely
to elicit a truthful and perhaps negative response, into account when examining adolescents’
reactions toward different types of alcohol-related content. This will enhance previous research
which mostly focused on how adolescents react positively in public circumstances (Beullens &
Schepers, 2013;Hendriks et al., 2017;Wolfer, 2014).
Adolescents’Perceptions of (In)appropriate Alcohol Posts
Adolescence is known as a period in which individuals are constructing their identity and are
exploring different behaviors, including risk behaviors such as the use of alcohol (Spear, 2013).
Research, for instance, has shown that adolescents frequently engage in drinking and even binge
drinking (NIAAA, 2021;Rosiers, Coghe, Paepe, Geirnaert, & Damme, 2018). This is problematic
because alcohol use affects brain development and is associated with other risk behaviors, like
smoking, in the short term and might even increase the likelihood of alcohol dependency in later
life stages (Bonnie & O’Connell, 2004;Marshall, 2014). As such, it is important to focus on
adolescents’alcohol use as this might form the base for future alcohol use.
An important factor that might impact adolescents’alcohol use is the legal context in which
adolescents are situated (McHale et al., 2009) Across countries, different rules regarding the legal
purchase age for alcohol seem to exist (e.g., no liquor under 18 or 21 years old) that prohibit
adolescents to buy (certain types of) alcohol. However, despite these rules, adolescents still seem
to partake in underage drinking across various countries (NIAAA, 2021;Rosiers et al., 2018). This
seems to indicate that adolescents themselves, as opposed to individuals in later life stages and the
broader legal perspective, might not consider underage drinking to be “inappropriate.”
However, it remains uncertain whether these feelings of (in)appropriateness might also hold for
the portrayal of this underage drinking in the online environment. Research, for instance, indicates
that adolescents are well aware of how they can be perceived online (boyd, 2014). As such, they
might avoid sharing certain types of alcohol posts publicly because of the possible disapproving
32 Journal of Drug Issues 52(1)
To continue reading
Request your trial