title: How social media influence college students' smoking attitudes and intentions.
abstract: Building on the influence of presumed influence (IPI) model, this study examines how smoking- related messages on social media influence college students' smoking. We surveyed 366 college students from three U.S. Midwestern universities in 2012 and examined the effects of expression and reception of smoking-related messages on smoking using path analysis. We found that the expression and reception of prosmoking messages not only directly affected smoking but also had indirect effects on smoking through (1) perceived peer expression of prosmoking messages and (2) perceived peer smoking norms. For antismoking messages, only reception had a significant indirect influence on smoking through (1) perceived peer reception of antismoking messages and (2) perceived peer smoking norms. In conclusion, social media function as an effective communication channel for generating, sharing, receiving, and commenting on smoking-related content and are thus influential on college students' smoking.
authors.affiliation: Survey & Health Policy Research Center, Dongguk University, 30, Pildong-ro 1-gil, Jung-gu, Seoul, 04620, South Korea.
authors.forename: Woohyun
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Yoo
authors.affiliation: School of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 5115 Vilas Communication Hall, 821 University Avenue, Madison, WI 53706, USA.
authors.forename: JungHwan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: School of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 5115 Vilas Communication Hall, 821 University Avenue, Madison, WI 53706, USA.
authors.forename: Eunji
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Cho
keywords: College students; Influence of presumed influence; Smoking attitude; Smoking intention; Social media