title: Social networking and young adults' drinking practices: innovative qualitative methods for health behavior research.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Understandings of health behaviors can be enriched by using innovative qualitative research designs. We illustrate this with a project that used multiple qualitative methods to explore the confluence of young adults' drinking behaviors and social networking practices in Aotearoa, New Zealand.
  
  
  METHODS
  Participants were 18-25 year old males and females from diverse ethnic, class, and occupational backgrounds. In Stage 1, 34 friendship focus group discussions were video-recorded with 141 young adults who talked about their drinking and social networking practices. In Stage 2, 23 individual interviews were conducted using screen-capture software and video to record participants showing and discussing their Facebook pages. In Stage 3, a database of Web-based material regarding drinking and alcohol was developed and analyzed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In friendship group data, young adults co-constructed accounts of drinking practices and networking about drinking via Facebook as intensely social and pleasurable. However, this pleasure was less prominent in individual interviews, where there was greater explication of unpleasant or problematic experiences and practices. The pleasure derived from drinking and social networking practices was also differentiated by ethnicity, gender, and social class. Juxtaposing the Web-based data with participants' talk about their drinking and social media use showed the deep penetration of online alcohol marketing into young people's social worlds.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Multiple qualitative methods, generating multimodal datasets, allowed valuable nuanced insights into young adults' drinking practices and social networking behaviors. This knowledge can usefully inform health policy, health promotion strategies, and targeted health interventions.
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology.
authors.forename: Antonia C
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Lyons
authors.affiliation: School of English and Media Studies.
authors.forename: Ian
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Goodwin
authors.affiliation: SHORE & Whariki Research Centre.
authors.forename: Tim
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: McCreanor
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Bath.
authors.forename: Christine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Griffin
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D033062:Friends / Q000523:psychology; D015438:Health Behavior; D006293:Health Promotion / Q000379:methods; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009520:New Zealand / Q000453:epidemiology; D036301:Qualitative Research; D012919:Social Behavior; D060756:Social Networking; D055815:Young Adult