Exposure to Peers’ Online Postings about Substances and Adolescents’ Substance Use: a Longitudinal Study

Adolescents may be exposed to online content depicting substance use, raising the question of how exposure to others’ online substance use content relates to one’s own use. Additionally, it is of interest to explore how parental restrictive (i.e., media content restriction) and active mediation (i.e., media content discussion) may relate to links between online substance use exposure and substance use. In a sample of 1017 U.S. adolescents (55% female; T1 M_age = 15.04), this longitudinal study examined links between exposure to peers’ online postings about substances and adolescents’ own alcohol, marijuana, cigarette, and e-cigarette use two years later. Adolescents’ Time 1 exposure to peers’ online substance postings was generally associated with greater Time 2 marijuana use, alcohol use, and, to some extent, e-cigarette use. Greater Time 1 cigarette use was associated with lower Time 2 exposure to peers’ online substance postings. Time 1 parent-reported restrictive mediation was associated with lower Time 2 exposure to online postings, but mediation did not buffer associations between exposure and use. Intervention and prevention efforts should be geared towards targeting risky content adolescents are exposed to online, and what parenting behaviors may be effective in attenuating associations between online substance exposure and use.