TY - JOUR
T1 - Investigating the Potential Impact of Social Talk on Prevention Through Social Networks
T2 - the Relationships Between Social Talk and Refusal Self-Efficacy and Norms
AU - Choi, Hye Jeong
AU - Hecht, Michael
AU - Smith, Rachel A.
N1 - Funding Information:
This study was supported by Grant Number R01DA021670 from the National Institute on Drug Abuse to The Pennsylvania State University (Michael Hecht, Principal Investigator). Its contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2017, Society for Prevention Research.
PY - 2017/5/1
Y1 - 2017/5/1
N2 - Interpersonal communication among participants plays an important role in the impact and effectiveness of prevention programs (Southwell & Yzer, Communication Theory 19:1–8, 2009). This study focused on adolescents’ informal conversations about a prevention program, referred to as social talk, from a social network perspective. We provide both a conceptualization of social talk in relation to prevention programs and an operationalization of it by examining adolescents’ social networks. Participants (N = 185) were eighth-grade students attending a middle school substance-abuse prevention program called keepin’ it REAL (kiR). Participants engaged in both positive and negative social talk about kiR. Students with higher friendship indegree centrality were more likely to have greater positive social talk indegree centrality (r =.23 p <.01). These results indicated that youth considered as friends by most of their classmates were also reported as being positive in their comments with respect to kiR. Youth who talked positively about kiR tended to report personal anti-substance injunctive norms (b = 0.71, p <.05). On the other hand, youth who were nominated as negative social talkers by their peers appeared to have less personal anti-substance injunctive norms (b = −0.92, p <.05). Furthermore, youth who were more likely to talk negatively about kiR were less likely to perceive that their best friends (b = −1.66, p <.05) or most youth in their age (b = −1.49, p <.05) disapprove of substance use.
AB - Interpersonal communication among participants plays an important role in the impact and effectiveness of prevention programs (Southwell & Yzer, Communication Theory 19:1–8, 2009). This study focused on adolescents’ informal conversations about a prevention program, referred to as social talk, from a social network perspective. We provide both a conceptualization of social talk in relation to prevention programs and an operationalization of it by examining adolescents’ social networks. Participants (N = 185) were eighth-grade students attending a middle school substance-abuse prevention program called keepin’ it REAL (kiR). Participants engaged in both positive and negative social talk about kiR. Students with higher friendship indegree centrality were more likely to have greater positive social talk indegree centrality (r =.23 p <.01). These results indicated that youth considered as friends by most of their classmates were also reported as being positive in their comments with respect to kiR. Youth who talked positively about kiR tended to report personal anti-substance injunctive norms (b = 0.71, p <.05). On the other hand, youth who were nominated as negative social talkers by their peers appeared to have less personal anti-substance injunctive norms (b = −0.92, p <.05). Furthermore, youth who were more likely to talk negatively about kiR were less likely to perceive that their best friends (b = −1.66, p <.05) or most youth in their age (b = −1.49, p <.05) disapprove of substance use.
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U2 - 10.1007/s11121-017-0764-6
DO - 10.1007/s11121-017-0764-6
M3 - Article
C2 - 28214963
AN - SCOPUS:85013115866
SN - 1389-4986
VL - 18
SP - 459
EP - 468
JO - Prevention Science
JF - Prevention Science
IS - 4
ER -