Social networking as audience segmentation strategy

Eighth grade middle school students completed a posttest survey following exposure to keepin' it REAL (a school-based substance abuse prevention program emphasizing resistance skills). Students were asked about their substance use attitudes, norms, and self-reported use as well as about their friendship networks (e.g., with whom they spend time with during and outside of school, and with whom they talk about drugs and drug use). The structure of peer friendship networks was modeled using UCINET to identify subgroups of substance users, non-users, and mixed groups as well as identify communication networks characterized by how 8th grade students talked about drugs and drug use. Non-penetrated social networks were identified as potential targets for follow-up booster sessions of keepin' it REAL. Based on the network diffusion of innovations model (Valente, 1995) liaisons (students who are friends with and spend time in more than one social network; also called bridgers) were identified as a potential novel strategy to accelerate diffusion of prevention messages (i.e., drug resistance). Implications for prevention campaigns will be discussed.