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Investigating the Potential Impact of Social Talk on Prevention Through Social Networks: the Relationships Between Social Talk and Refusal Self-Efficacy and Norms

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Abstract

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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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Health Sciences, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO, USA

    Hye Jeong Choi

  2. Communication Arts and Sciences, The Pennsylvania State University, State College, PA, USA

    Michael Hecht

  3. Communication Arts and Sciences and Human Development & Family Studies, The Pennsylvania State University, State College, PA, USA

    Rachel A. Smith

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  1. Hye Jeong Choi
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  2. Michael Hecht
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Correspondence to Hye Jeong Choi.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Informed Consent

Informed consent was obtained from all participants’ legal guardians, and student assent was also obtained in this study.

Funding

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.

Research Involving Human Participants

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. This study received approval from University Institutional Review Board at The Pennsylvania State University.

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Choi, H.J., Hecht, M. & Smith, R.A. Investigating the Potential Impact of Social Talk on Prevention Through Social Networks: the Relationships Between Social Talk and Refusal Self-Efficacy and Norms. Prev Sci 18, 459–468 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11121-017-0764-6

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