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Background: The popularity of e-cigarettes is on the rise among current cigarette users. Therefore, there are concerns about their health implications. This study examined the impact of health-related social media use on e-cigarette use among current cigarette users. It assesses the mediating influence of online anti-tobacco messages and the moderating role of the harm perception of e-cigarettes., Methods: This study was focused on 563 current cigarette users from the 2022 Health Information National Trends Survey (HINTS). Three tasks were performed: (1) assessing the direct and indirect impacts of health-related social media use on e-cigarette use among current cigarette users, (2) exploring the mediating role of exposure to online anti-tobacco messages, and (3) examining the moderating influence of e-cigarette harm perception on the path from anti-tobacco messages to e-cigarette use., Results: Health-related social media use was positively associated with current cigarette users' e-cigarette use directly (bp = 0.183, p < .01) and indirectly through exposure to online anti-tobacco messages (bp = 0.023, 95% CI: [0.001, 0.051]). Harm perception of e-cigarettes moderated the relationship between online exposure to anti-tobacco messages and e-cigarette use (bp=-0.467, p < .01). The relationship appeared weaker for individuals who perceived greater harm from e-cigarettes., Conclusions: Health-related social media use positively correlates with e-cigarette use among current cigarette users through exposure to online anti-tobacco messages. The perceived harm of e-cigarettes moderates this indirect path. These findings have implications for public health interventions aimed at smoking cessation., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Background: The prevalence of caregiving in the United States has increased from 16.6% to 19.2% during the period between 2015 and 2020. Caregivers play a critical public health role post-pandemic and as the population ages. However, caregiving can be detrimental to the health of caregivers. Many studies have shown that communication and connectedness are effective forms of health intervention for caregivers, but how this can be achieved requires further investigation., Objective: This study aimed to investigate the indirect effect of caregiving on problems of alcohol drinking through psychological distress. Moreover, this study aimed to provide initial evidence of the distinct effects of online and offline communication and connectedness on caregivers' well-being., Methods: The predictions were evaluated by examining responses to the Health Information National Trends Survey 2020 (n = 3,865). A mediation analysis was conducted to test the mediating effect of psychological distress on the association between caregiving and alcohol drinking. A second-level moderation analysis was performed. The online communication and connectedness, social media use for health, and the offline type, marital or romantic partnership, were tested as moderators to lessen the psychological distress of caregiving., Results: A competitive mediation was identified. We found a positive indirect effect from caregiving to alcohol drinking mediated by psychological distress (b p  = .0017, p < .05) but a negative direct effect from caregiving to alcohol drinking (b p  = -.0340, p < .05). Furthermore, the study reported a strongly positive effect of moderated moderation on the linkage from caregiving to psychological distress. The negative impact of caregiving on mental distress was greater among those who used social media less, particularly those without a romantic or marital partner., Conclusions: The findings indicate that caregivers experience more mental distress, which leads to risky behavior. This study highlights the crucial role of both online and offline connectedness in mitigating the adverse consequences of caregiving., (© 2023. The Author(s).)

Background: Prior research has investigated the influence of social media on e-cigarette use among adolescents, predominantly through the display of e-cigarette content and advertisements. However, the psychological mechanism underlying this relationship remains underexplored. This study aims to address the mediating effect of youths internalizing problems and elucidate the moderating effect of academic performance from a longitudinal perspective., Methods: Panel data from the Public Assessment of Tobacco and Health (PATH) Study Waves 3-5 (2015-2019) were utilized in this study. The sample consisted of 3,975 youths between the ages of 12 and 17 years old. A moderated mediation model was utilized for analyses., Results: Adolescents using social media more frequently in Wave 3 reported higher odds of internalizing problems in Wave 4 (bp = 0.061, p < .01), which led to more e-cigarette use in Wave 5 (bp = 0.029, p < .01). A negative moderating effect of academic performance was found in the association between internalizing problems and e-cigarette use (bp=-0.088, p < .05)., Conclusions: Frequent social media use among young individuals leads to an increase in e-cigarette use through enhanced internalizing problems. However, adolescents who perform well academically exhibit higher resistance to e-cigarette use. Based on our findings, we recommend that tailored anti-e-cigarette campaigns and mental health interventions be used to target frequent social media users and academically struggling adolescents to prevent adverse health outcomes., (© 2023. The Author(s).)

• Integrated Internet trolling into crisis communication theories. • Understood specific purposes and behaviors of crisis influencers and followers. • Explored the interaction processes of publics through cultural discourse analysis. • Proposed a regenerative crisis model of publics to identify social media influencers and followers. Given that a regenerative crisis life cycle is no longer static, communication dynamics have extended beyond organization-receiver relationship to receiver-receiver relationship in the social media environment. This paper analyzes and explicates the socio-cultural meanings in the interaction processes of the crisis publics with a specific socio-political context by blending the concept of Internet trolling into predominant crisis communication theories (i.e. social-mediated crisis communication and regenerative crisis model). Using cultural discourse analysis (CuDA), we analyzed the top influential posts, comments and responses created by both influential social media users and general followers based on the five discourse hubs or radiants of identity, relation, action, dwelling, and emotion in the Lancôme case, which was regarded as the most heated crisis in Hong Kong after and influenced by the Umbrella Movement. The findings suggest that the motivations and behaviors found within each of the crisis publics––influencers and followers––are fundamentally different from each other by nature along the situated regenerative crisis. Two types of social media influencers (i.e. primary and secondary influencers) were identified. We propose a regenerative crisis model of publics to highlight their roles, purposes, behaviors, interaction processes, and emotions within a situated socio-political tension. This paper also discusses the theoretical implications for social-mediated crisis communication literature and the practical implications that take contextual factors into consideration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]