# A Social Media Personalized Normative Feedback Intervention for Heavy Drinking Students

> **NIH NIH R00** · DUQUESNE UNIVERSITY · 2020 · $249,000

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT
The long-term goals of the proposed research trajectory are twofold: (1) to better understand how social media
potentially shapes and redefines students' drinking norms, (2) and to utilize this knowledge in order to develop
and implement a social media-specific personalized normative feedback (SMPNF) intervention targeting the
reduction of drinking among heavy drinking students. These overarching goals will be achieved via a 5-year
training plan consisting of two mentored years and three years of independent research. Primary objectives of
the training plan will include: 1) gaining experience in coding alcohol-related content (ARC) on social media, 2)
creation and validation of two ARC-related self-report instruments, 3) obtaining base rate information for ARC
utilizing the new self-report measure, 4) developing a strong foundation in the field of alcohol research with an
emphasis in intervention development, 5) acquiring necessary statistical skills in the creation of assessment
instruments and hierarchal linear modeling in order to test intervention hypotheses, and 6) cultivating greater
proficiency in grant writing. Dr. Steers will meet regularly with members of her mentoring team who possess
extensive expertise in the areas directly relevant to the research proposal: 1) alcohol-related personalized
feedback interventions among college populations (Dr. Neighbors), 2) ARC posted to Facebook (Dr. Moreno),
and 3) statistical expertise (Dr. Wickham). The timing and structure of the training plan has been carefully
organized and integrated to concur with the implementation of the SMPNF intervention. In the K99 mentored
phase, two self-report measures will be constructed, psychometrically evaluated, and refined which assess: 1)
positive and negative evaluations surrounding ARC, and 2) participants' self-reported frequency/categories in
which they and their friends posted ARC. The latter measure will be correlated with the ARC contained on a
stratified (based on how much participants report drinking) subsample of 240 of 500 participants' Facebook
walls. The first year of the R00 phase will be dedicated to assessing base rates of drinking and Facebook ARC
using the ARC frequency/category measure developed in the K99 phase. These base rates will be used to
generate part of feedback that participants receive in the SMPNF intervention to be conducted in the second
and third years of the R00 phase. Participants will be randomly assigned to one of four conditions: 1) SMPNF
only, 2) alcohol-related personalized normative feedback (APNF) only, 3) APNF + SMPNF, and 4) attention
control. The proposed research is both timely and consistent with the NIAAA's mission of exploring the
intersection of social media and drinking. Upon securing a tenure track position at the R00 institution, Dr.
Steers plans to utilize the knowledge gained from the planned studies in order to conceive her first
independent R01 NIAAA proposal as principle invest...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10015186
- **Project number:** 5R00AA025394-04
- **Recipient organization:** DUQUESNE UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Mai-Ly Nguyen Steers
- **Activity code:** R00 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $249,000
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2019-09-15 → 2022-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10015186

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10015186, A Social Media Personalized Normative Feedback Intervention for Heavy Drinking Students (5R00AA025394-04). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-25 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10015186. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*