Social media and college student risk behaviors: A mini-review.

Use of social media use is widespread and frequent among college students. Posting photos and text related to risk behaviors (e.g., problematic alcohol use, illicit drug use) on social media websites is common and has been linked to personal substance use and negative outcomes. This mini-review summarizes current findings related to associations between college students' social media use and engagement in risk behaviors. Conducting research on social media poses unique challenges for researchers; these challenges are reviewed and their impact on the state of the current literature discussed. Finally, implications for prevention and intervention efforts are discussed as well as recommendations regarding future research in the area of social media and college student risk behaviors.

Disordered eating and alcohol use among college women: associations with race and big five traits.

Excessive alcohol use and disordered eating are considerable health-related problems among college women. The purpose of the present study was to examine how specific patterns of disordered eating (i.e., anorexia, bulimia, binge eating) are related to alcohol use and related problems and the influence of racial group membership and Big Five personality traits on the co-occurrence of these behaviors. Participants were 153 undergraduate women. Results indicated that White women reported more binge drinking, alcohol-related problems, disordered eating, anorexia nervosa symptoms, and bulimia nervosa symptoms than non-White women. Women with higher levels of openness and who engage in extreme exercise, dieting, fasting, or purging were more at risk for heavy and problematic alcohol use. Implications for the treatment of co-occurring disorders among college students and further research are discussed.

Perceived drinking norms among black college students: the race of reference group members.

Social norms have been consistently shown to influence alcohol use among college students. Much of the research in this area is focused on mostly White samples. This study sought to expand our understanding of social norms theory by examining perceptions of normative alcohol use among Black students and determining the impact of the race of reference group members on personal alcohol use. Participants (N=130; 73.8% female) completed an online questionnaire. Results of repeated measures of analysis of variance indicated that participants perceived all referent groups (i.e., White, same race, typical student) as drinking significantly more than they did. Results of hierarchical regression analysis indicated that perceptions of typical student drinking significantly predicted personal alcohol use. Implications for practice and research are discussed.