In this study, a social media analysis is conducted to examine the public discourse about the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic on Twitter. In particular, this study aims to examine (a) how the number of tweets varies as a function of the timeline of the pandemic and associated measures and (b) how the content of these tweets, including displayed emotions, changes. Therefore, 373,908 tweets and retweets from Belgium were collected from February 25, 2020 to the March 30. Time series analysis, network bigrams, topic models, and emotional lexica were deployed for analysis. The results showed that significant events related to the virus correlated with an immediate increase in the number of tweets addressing them. Furthermore, the Belgian Twitter discourse was characterized by positively connoted words, which also refer to European solidarity. These findings do not only stress the relevance of Twitter as a medium for public discourse during lockdowns, but also seem to indicate that the Belgian public supports policy measures that respect solidarity in Europe.

COVID-19 and measures to contain it may have impacted college students’ behavior, including their drinking behavior. Students’ drinking may have decreased—for example, due to the closure of bars—bu...

Scholars have indicated that social media contribute to various health-related behaviors (e.g., substance use, body dissatisfaction) among adolescents. This study adds to the literature on health-related social media effects through theoretical advances supported by empirical evidence. First, we introduce the TAMT model, in which we assess the media environment along a continuum of two dimensions: the temporality (from ephemeral to persistent) and accessibility (from private to public) of message types. By combining these dimensions, we argue that there are four message types: ephemeral private, persistent private, ephemeral public, and persistent public. Second, we draw on the TAMT model to advance our knowledge of the role of social media in alcohol-related behaviors. We expected that, due to the distinctive characteristics of the four message types, they would be differently related to alcohol references and binge drinking. Based on cross-sectional data (N = 1,636, Mage = 15, SD = 1.17), we found that moderate alcohol references are encountered across all message types, while more extreme references are more likely to be prevalent in ephemeral public and ephemeral private messages. We show that exposure to moderate and extreme alcohol use references in ephemeral private and persistent private messages was associated with a higher probability of engaging in binge drinking, whereas exposure to ephemeral public and persistent public messages was not. Ephemeral private messages played the most crucial role in the association with binge drinking. These findings illustrate the importance of broadening the scope of research to ephemeral private environments when studying health-related behaviors. While we have illustrated the usefulness of the TAMT model against the background of two specific types of alcohol references, this new model can be extended to other behaviors (e.g., sexual risk-taking behaviors, cyberbullying).

This study reviews 1,406 research articles published between 2016 and 2020 in the European Journal of Social Work (EJSW), the British Journal of Social Work (BJSW) and Research on Social Work Practice (RSWP). It assesses the proportion and complexity of quantitative research designs amongst published articles and investigates differences between the journals. Furthermore, the review investigates the complexity of the statistical methods employed and identifies the most frequently addressed topics. From the 1,406 articles, 504 (35.8 percent) used a qualitative methodology, 389 (27.7 percent) used a quantitative methodology, 85 (6 percent) used the mixed methods (6 percent), 253 (18 percent) articles were theoretical in nature, 148 (10.5 percent) conducted reviews and 27 (1.9 percent) gave project overviews. The proportion of quantitative research articles was higher in RSWP (55.4 percent) than in the EJSW (14.1 percent) and the BJSW (20.5 percent). The topic analysis could identify at least forty different topics addressed by the articles. Although the proportion of quantitative research is rather small in social work research, the review could not find evidence that it is of low sophistication. Finally, this study concludes that future research would benefit from making explicit why a certain methodology was chosen.

The WHO has highlighted that: "promotion of e-cigarettes has led to marked increases in e-cigarette use by children and adolescents." The long-term neuropsychiatric and psychological consequences of substance abuse in adolescence is well recognised. Limited data exists on the adolescent burden of vaping-related nicotine addiction and behavioural and/or psychological dependence to guide pharmacological or behavioural interventions to stop electronic cigarette usage. A self-administered brief electronic survey was provided to a large, sample of high school students from January to October 2023 in South Africa. Questions on vaping usage, initiation, reasons for continuation and indicators of physical and psychological dependence were asked. A mixed methods approach was used to obtain and analyse quantitative and qualitative responses. 25,149 students from 52 South Africa schools completed the survey. 45.8% identify as female, 51.7% male, 0.3% transgender, 2.1% do not identify with a gender. Current vaping was reported by 16.83% (95% CI: 16.47-17.30), with 36.71% reporting ever using a vaping product (95% CI: 26.06-37.36). The odds of vaping increased by grade but not with increasing school affluence. 47% vaped within the first hour of waking suggesting high nicotine addiction. Vaping initiation reasons of: 'social influences' and 'curiosity', changed significantly to ongoing motivations of: 'enjoyment', 'managing mental distress' and 'addiction' to nicotine. Paired quantitative/qualitative responses regarding stress and dependence showed inconsistencies at the individual student level. Vaping in the schools surveyed was high and increased by grade but was not associated with school level affluence. Drivers for vaping initiation change significantly to persistence drivers with significant nicotine addiction. Adolescent perceptions (qualitative/quantitative) are frequently incongruent suggesting that mixed methods evaluations are required to understand individual level drivers of vaping. Urgent interventions tailored to this population are required. Nicotine addiction may require "off-label" pharmacotherapies alongside tailored behavioural interventions utilising the expressed concerns, psychological and dependence measures elicited from adolescents. This study was funded in part by research grant from the Cambridge-Africa ALBORADA Research Fund G12753.