Peer-to-Peer Prevention Using Digital Media

This presentation reports on recent efforts to train and engage youth in peer-to-peer prevention education programs using digital media.

The authors describe the underlying theory and practices for peer-to-peer education using digital media such as online social networks and mobile phones. This includes the ubiquitous nature of the medium, as well as it’s proven potential as a tool for advocacy and for peer influence.

Health Branding Theory (HBT; Evans, 2016) was used to develop two interventions. The basic idea behind HPT is that youth messages, themselves, have brand equity or value when disseminated to peers. In other words, youth messages create about the benefits of drug-free living to peers. The brand is powerful precisely because it comes from peers. Then we discuss two case studies of the peer-to-peer prevention approach.

One example is Adelante, which is a multi-level, community-based Positive Youth Development (PYD) intervention that builds Latino immigrant assets to reduce co-occurring substance use, sexual risk, and violence disparities. Adelante has been conducted in a predominantly Latino and immigrant community near Washington, DC. We report on formative research results, data from a social media intervention, and outcome evaluation findings from a community-based media campaign developed and implemented as part of an overall engagement strategy. This work demonstrates that youth found the Adelante social media to be engaging, and based on a subsequent outcome evaluation, more likely to have anti-violence, anti-sexual risk taking, and anti-substance abuse beliefs given higher exposure to social media messages (dose response relationship; Evans et al, 2017 in press).

A second example is the Living the Example (LTE) campaign to engage youth in prevention using an experiential approach. As part of LTE, youth create their own prevention messages following a training curriculum in techniques for effective messaging and then share them via social media. We report on a pilot evaluation of the LTE program in two rural high schools in upstate New York. In this study, youth who reported exposure and receptivity to LTE reported a significant decrease in intentions (OR 0.239, P=.008). We observed a similar pattern for sedatives/sleeping pills—a decrease among youth who reported exposure and receptivity to LTE (OR 0.210, P=.02). We saw the same pattern for use of any drug—a decrease among youth who reported exposure and receptivity to LTE (OR 0.111, P=.004).

Overall, peer-to-peer prevention messaging using digital media has significant promise to increase youth engagement in prevention and improve substance use prevention outcomes. The presentation concludes with ideas for future interventions and research studies.