A team of our (smart) researchers from SMAHRT descended on Washington, D.C. last weekend for the Pediatric Academic Societies annual meeting. SMAHRT = Social Media and Adolescent Health Research Team, which is based at Seattle Children’s Research Institute. This week, we’ll feature some of their new research. Megan Moreno, MD, leads the group and is a senior author on all of the research studies. Some of the researchers are based at other academic institutions, demonstrating the collaborative spirit of SMAHRT.

Study group

There are two predictions that are a near sure bet when discussing the daily lives of college students. First, Facebook is an omnipresent social tool for this age group. Nearly all students use it, and it has become an important part of how they form friendships.

Second, as you’ve read in other SMAHRT posts this week, alcohol is a big part of collegiate life, to the extent that binge drinking and other dangerous drinking behaviors are often seen as normal. Taking these two factors into account, a related phenomenon is that students often post about alcohol on Facebook.

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