Adolescent exposure to nicotine and tobacco content on social media: incorporating adolescent experiences and social media analytics to inform exposure assessment

About This Grant

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT Over 90% of adolescents aged 13-17 report using ≥1 social media platform regularly. Adolescence is also a time period when individuals may experiment with tobacco. This is concerning as those who smoke in adulthood are more likely to have tried smoking before 18 years of age. In 2024, 1.58 million high school and 640,000 middle school students reported current tobacco use. Nicotine and tobacco product (NTP) use has important short and long-term neurologic, cardiovascular, and pulmonary health effects. Nicotine exposure in adolescence can also harm the developing brain and increase the risk of addiction. Social media use increases opportunities for exposure to pro-NTP content from both user-generated (e.g., peers) as well as promotional (e.g., brands) sources. While adolescents spend a vast amount of time on social media, there are limited tools for assessing exposure to NTP content on these platforms. Research often relies on self-reported measures that are uninformed by youth experiences within these spaces, and which provide little information on content source, themes, and youth appeal. While approaches such as social media data mining are promising for identifying emerging content trends, data are limited to publicly available posts with no access to content from private accounts or shared via direct messaging (exposures that can be captured via self-report). Social media content analyses are also unable to connect exposure with individual-level behavior. Measurement challenges lead to knowledge gaps regarding the influence of social media-based NTP content on adolescent NTP perceptions, intentions, and behaviors, and limit the ability of research to inform prevention including interventions, messaging, and policies. In response to these knowledge gaps, the applicant’s goal is to use qualitative and quantitative methods to assess the social media-based NTP exposure landscape for adolescents and develop a measurement tool to quantify NTP-related content exposure informed by adolescent feedback and data mining. Through the K01, the applicant will obtain critical training in: 1) best practices and ethical considerations for conducting primary data collection with youth, 2) advanced methods for analyzing social media-based exposures, 3) measure development, and 4) faculty career development and grant writing. The skills developed during the K01 will be applied to deepen our understanding of youth experiences with pro-NTP content on social media platforms. The specific research aims are to: 1) assess current perceptions of and experiences with NTP-related social media posts; 2) identify and categorize NTP content from NTP brands and NTP-related hashtags on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube; and 3) develop a measure of pro-NTP content exposure on social media. This multi-methods study will integrate findings from Aims 1 & 2 to inform measure development (Aim 3). The mentored training provided by the K01 will aid the applicant in the transition to independence and allow her to expand her expertise as a social epidemiologist to apply multi-methods approaches to inform policy and initiatives to reduce NTP initiation and addiction.