The Influence of (Super)Peers on Adolescent COVID-19-Related Behavior, Risk-Perceptions, and Attitudes

• In Event: Technology in the lives of older children and adolescents: Digital citizenship, empathy, and attitudes

Abstract

In the digital era, the internet and more importantly social media, play a huge role in adolescents’ daily lives. At the age of 16, adolescents spent an average of three hours a day on social media platforms (Bayindir & Kavanagh, 2018), such as YouTube. Yet, we know little about the potential positive and negative influences of these social media platforms on adolescent development, which might be extremely important in times of a pandemic. Therefore, the first aim of this study was to experimentally test whether adolescents’ COVID-19 related attitudes, risk-perceptions, and behavioral intentions were influenced by the COVID-19 related behavior of their superpeers (i.e., influential peers with large following, in this case famous Dutch YouTube vloggers). The second aim of the study was to test whether the potential influence of Dutch YouTube vloggers on adolescents could be amplified or diminished by comments of other viewers that either encouraged or discouraged the YouTube vloggers’ behavior. We exposed adolescents (N = 285, Mage = 12.99, SD = 1.02) to three clips of Dutch YouTube vloggers in which the vlogger either complied or did not comply with the COVID-19 regulations in place. Additionally, adolescents saw comments, made by fellow peers, that encouraged or discouraged the behavior of the YouTube vlogger. Preliminary between-subjects analyses indicated that there was no direct effect of YouTube vloggers’ behavior on adolescent’ attitudes, risk-perceptions, or behavioral intentions, nor was this moderated by the (dis)approval of fellow peers. There was one exception: adolescents who were exposed to YouTube vloggers who did not comply with the regulations in place, worried less about COVID-19 than adolescents who saw YouTube vloggers comply. Additional analyses indicated that there might be more to the story: adolescents who strongly identified with the YouTube vlogger they observed or who often watched the YouTube vlogger’s videos in their daily lives, conformed their behavioral intentions and attitudes to the non-compliant behavior of the YouTube vlogger—going against the regulations in place. Our findings suggest that adolescents do, to some extent, get influenced by their superpeers on the internet. Exposure and identification, unlike other peers’ approval or disapproval, seem to be important factors that can explain which adolescents are likely to be influenced. Our findings indicate that superpeer influence is unfortunately, mostly negative, which asks for caution in how much adolescents are exposed to YouTube vloggers they like who portray risky or non-compliant behaviors.

Authors

• Maud Hensums, University of Amsterdam
  Presenting Author

• Eddie Brummelman, Universiteit van Amsterdam (UvA)

• Helle Larsen, University of Amsterdam

• Wouter Van den Bos, University of Amsterdam

• Geertjan Overbeek, University of Amsterdam