Sex, Drugs, and Mental Health on Social Media

Sex, Drugs, and Mental Health on Social MediaMaramawit Abera University of Pennsylvania

Robin Stevens MPH, PhD Health Equity and Media Lab

Overview/Agenda

I. Background on The Digital Neighborhood and Significance

II. Two PartsA. @City Uncensored

1. Background

2. Methods

3. Results

B. Drug Words and Mental Illness1. Background

2. Method

3. Results

III. Lessons Learned

IV.Acknowledgements

“The Digital Neighborhood”

● Social Media platforms like

Twitter, Instagram, Facebook,

etc.

● Community that is tailored

one’s interests and social

networks.

SOCIAL RELATIONSHIPS

ONLINE RELATIONSHIPS

GEOGRAPHIC NEIGHBORHOOD

MEDIA CULTURE

POPULAR CULTURE

“SUPER PEER”

MODELING BEHAVIOR

PERCEIVED NORMS

HEALTH INFO

PERFORMATIVE

ACTIVISM

THIRD SPACES

“”

“I think Facebook is like

a ghetto news centerfor like, who’s died, who’s pregnant, find out everything is bad in the world but nothing’s good.

-AMIJAH 15

● informs how they understand and engage in things like sex, violence, substance, and mental health

● “super peer” informing their intention to engage in risky behaviors

Significance

African American youth, ages 13-19,

account for the largest percentage of

users of social media

Source: Pew Research Center Internet & Technology (2015)

Significance

Source: JMIR mHealth and uHealth

What I worked on

@City Uncensored

Using Social Media to Increase HIV/STI

Prevention

Drugs and Mental Health

Substance and Mental Health on

TwitterAND

@ City Uncensored

Qualitative Descriptive Study

Aim 1: Identify barriers and facilitators to PrEP, HIV testing, condom

use, and high risk sexual behaviors among Black or Latino adults,

aged 18-24, in high HIV prevalence neighborhoods

@ City Uncensored

Qualitative Descriptive Study

Aim 2: Elicit participants’ feedback on the development of an

HIV/STI prevention intervention delivered via social media.

Methods/Research Design

▶ Interview Key Stakeholders

▶ 8-10 person focus groups with adult Black and Latino men and

women 18 to 24

▶ 10-minute paper questionnaire and then engage in a 120-minute

focus group discussion

Timeline:

District Attorney First Focus GroupYouth Build

Preliminary Findings

▶ Don’t work in juvenile justice

▶ Youth with children are intrinsically motivated

▶ Condom use is not trendy

▶ We can get youth to talk sex and sexual wellness

Substance Use and Mental Health on Twitter

Qualitative Study

Aim: To characterize the digital hood and the extent to

which drug words are used on twitter

▶ N=872 tweets▶ Coded each tweet for drug-related, non-drug related and

ambitious.▶ Of the 63 drug words, 12 had the largest proportion of drug related

tweets ▶ The words are:

▶ #Blunt, #Highlife, #Marijuana, #Wakenbake, Ganja, Pothead, Smoke, Stoned, and Weed

▶ Valium, Adderall, and Xanax

▶ We coded for themes and created theme dictionary ▶ Conducted a content analysis

Methods/Research Design:

Themes:

Theme Dictionary

Theme: Description: Example:

Companionship a feeling of fellowship or friendship:looking for a companion

Someone find me a #blunt and a cuddlebuddy.

Longing a yearning desire or craving

I'd rather be high right now.

Coping a means of managing something

Marijuana is useful for treating _______ [whatever the fuck your problem is here

Label self or other categorization

She called me a pothead tho... Naaaah, I prefer stoner

Theme Dictionary

Theme: Description: Example:

Pride confidence in actions

This was the #first #blunt I rolled that the mans didnt have to fix :) #iwassoproud #smokedsonice

Frequency indicates or implies number of occurrences: normalized usage

Every Sunday I take a lot of Adderall and do a weeks worth a work in a night.

Time indication of time of day, week, year

Two hours and four minutes till I can decorate and smoke a blunt :)

Reminiscing nostalgia, wistful, looking back at use

That night I was soo drunk..soo high.. Can't even remember.. #trippinBalls #MissThoseNights #HighLife

Theme Dictionary

Theme: Description: Example:

Pop Culture song lyrics, celebrities, reference to trending topics

Ain't a fucking sing along unless you brought the weed along (Drake)

MML political standpoint of legalization of drugs

Colarodo is the olace to bee I swear as mucb weed ass u wanna smoke and its legal #shit #high #all #day #niggah

Association w/ other drugs/alcohol

implication of multiple substance use

I got percaset , Xanax , promenthasen with codeine !

Drug Culture Word Table

Key Words Key Themes

#Blunt longing, companionship, coping, pride

#Highlife longing, companionship, reminiscence,pride

#Marijuana pride, frequency

#Wakenbake time, frequency, pride

Ganja longing, companionship, pride

Pothead label, companionship, pride

Smoke time, companionship, coping, pride

Stoned longing, label, pride

Weed longing, pride

Prescription Words Table

3 key words: Theme:

Adderall longing, coping, pride

Valium longing, coping, association with other substances

Xanax longing, coping, association with other substances

Interpretation

▶ 25.% (63/248) of the tweets were categorized under Pride

▶ 16% (39/248) of the tweets were categorized under Longing

▶ prescription vs. non prescription

▶ 50% (17/36) Coping and 53% (10/19) Association with other

Drugs/Alcohol

▶ 95% (20/21) Companionship

Follow-Up Questions

▶ What does this say about drug culture?

▶ What is its significance with mental health and behavior?

▶ What other connections can be made?

Lessons Learned

▶ Research is a long process

▶ Community engaged requires patience and a lot of

listening

▶ Social Media is gold mine

▶ Creatively thinking about how to mine digital data can

create opportunity for novel intervention

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Robin Stevens

Bridgette Brawner

Elizabeth Lazarus

Sarah Huang

Joanne Levy

Safa Browne

SUMR Scholars