TY - JOUR
T1 - Son, you’re smoking on Facebook! College students’ disclosures on social networking sites as indicators of real-life risk behaviors
AU - van Hoof, Joris Jasper
AU - Bekkers, Jeroen
AU - van Vuuren, Hubrecht A.
PY - 2014
Y1 - 2014
N2 - Health risk behavior in student populations is an issue of major concern, and students’ risk levels are difficult to determine. In this study, we explore the extent to which information disclosed publicly on Facebook provides reliable indications of five real-life health behaviors.
Questionnaire data and Facebook contents (2928 items) on alcohol use, smoking, illicit drug use, (un)healthy nutrition, and participation in sports of 71 respondents were collected and analyzed.
The study shows that one can analyze Facebook profiles to reliably associate profile owners’ smoking and sport behavior. It also shows that regarding alcohol use, some Facebook profile elements are indicative of real-life drinking.
We discuss and suggest improved methods of coding disclosed public data, which may lead to reliable indications of peoples’ real-life behavior
AB - Health risk behavior in student populations is an issue of major concern, and students’ risk levels are difficult to determine. In this study, we explore the extent to which information disclosed publicly on Facebook provides reliable indications of five real-life health behaviors.
Questionnaire data and Facebook contents (2928 items) on alcohol use, smoking, illicit drug use, (un)healthy nutrition, and participation in sports of 71 respondents were collected and analyzed.
The study shows that one can analyze Facebook profiles to reliably associate profile owners’ smoking and sport behavior. It also shows that regarding alcohol use, some Facebook profile elements are indicative of real-life drinking.
We discuss and suggest improved methods of coding disclosed public data, which may lead to reliable indications of peoples’ real-life behavior
KW - METIS-303416
KW - IR-90546
U2 - 10.1016/j.chb.2014.02.008
DO - 10.1016/j.chb.2014.02.008
M3 - Article
VL - 34
SP - 249
EP - 257
JO - Computers in human behavior
JF - Computers in human behavior
SN - 0747-5632
ER -