Recent research has highlighted the impact that social media can have on college students’ binge drinking. A new study is the first to examine this impact in the United States compared to Belgium, a country with less restrictive laws and views on young adult drinking that is representative of Europe.

In this study, 770 college students in Belgium and the U.S. completed a survey on alcohol-related social media use, attitudes toward binge drinking, social norms, and intention to engage in heavy drinking behavior.

The results showed that within cultures, more frequent sharing of and exposure to alcohol-related content on social networking sites was related to stronger heavy-drinking intentions. Within this, perceptions of peer use mediated this impact of student exposure to others’ alcohol related social media content, while self sharing and drinking intentions were mediated by positive attitudes towards drinking. Within Belgian students, sharing alcohol related content was related to drinking intentions in association with peer drinking norms. This study shows the strong impact that alcohol-related social media content has on college students, regardless of the culture surrounding young adult alcohol use in their country.

Take Away: In Europe and the United States, college student exposure to and sharing of alcohol-related content on social media are linked to increased intentions of binge drinking.

Geusens, F., Bigman-Galimore, C.A., Beullens, K. (2019). A cross-cultural comparison of the processes underlying the associations between sharing of and exposure to alcohol references and drinking intentions.