Previous research suggests that exposure to alcohol-related content on social media sites (SMSs) may inflate perceptions of drinking norms, thereby increasing drinking among college students and potentially undermining popular social norms-based alcohol interventions. However, prior research on exposure has used subjective measures of alcohol exposure and has focused mostly on Facebook. The current study focused on Instagram, a popular SMS among college students, and utilized objective time tracking and newsfeed sampling methods to rigorously examine the prospective relationship between exposure to alcohol-related Instagram content (ARIC), alcohol cognitions, and drinking. Participants were 309 matriculating college students (M_age = 18.1, SD = 0.26; 62.1% female; 46.9% White/Caucasian; 17.5% Hispanic) who had their Instagram use tracked and newsfeeds sampled via a macro several times during the transition into college (August & September), and completed a baseline survey and two follow-up surveys. A sequential mediation model examined theoretically derived pathways between objective ARIC exposure and alcohol use. Results revealed that objective ARIC exposure during the transition to college was positively associated with drinking at the end of the first year of college, and subjective frequency of ARIC exposure mediated this relationship between objective ARIC exposure and later drinking. Subjective frequency of ARIC exposure also mediated the association between objective ARIC exposure and perceptions of descriptive norms, which, in turn, predicted later drinking. These findings illustrate that greater objective ARIC exposure during the transition into college may increase risky drinking over the first year via increased subjective frequency of ARIC and elevated perceptions of drinking norms. Priority directions for future research are discussed and several novel ways in which social norms-based interventions for first-year students may be enhanced to better combat ARIC-related influences are introduced.

先前的研究表明，在社交媒体网站（SMS）上接触与酒精相关的内容可能会增强人们对饮酒规范的看法，从而增加大学生的饮酒量，并可能破坏流行的基于社会规范的酒精干预措施。然而，之前关于酒精暴露的研究使用了酒精暴露的主观测量，并且主要集中在 Facebook 上。本研究主要针对大学生中流行的短信Instagram，利用客观时间追踪和新闻推送采样方法，严格检验Instagram酒精相关内容（ARIC）暴露、酒精认知和饮酒之间的前瞻性关系。参与者是 309 名即将入学的大学生（ M_年龄= 18.1， SD = 0.26；62.1% 为女性；46.9% 为白人/白人；17.5% 为西班牙裔），他们在进入大学期间多次跟踪其 Instagram 使用情况并通过宏对新闻源进行采样（八月和九月），并完成了一项基线调查和两次跟踪调查。序贯中介模型检查了客观 ARIC 暴露与饮酒之间理论上得出的路径。结果显示，在大学过渡期间的客观 ARIC 暴露与大学第一年结束时的饮酒呈正相关，而 ARIC 暴露的主观频率介导了客观 ARIC 暴露与后来饮酒之间的这种关系。 ARIC 暴露的主观频率也介导了客观 ARIC 暴露与描述性规范认知之间的关联，这反过来又预测了以后的饮酒。 这些发现表明，在进入大学的过渡期间，更多的客观 ARIC 暴露可能会通过增加 ARIC 的主观频率和提高对饮酒规范的认知来增加第一年的饮酒风险。讨论了未来研究的优先方向，并介绍了几种可以加强对一年级学生基于社会规范的干预措施的新方法，以更好地对抗 ARIC 相关的影响。