Let’s get critical! The effects of facilitated peer discussions on Dutch adolescents’ perceptions of risk behavior in entertainment media and real life

Research suggests that critical peer discussions about media portrayals of risk behavior can contribute to adolescents having more critical interpretations of these portrayals, as well as lower perceived social norms regarding real-life risk behavior. However, critical peer discussions rarely occur spontaneously. Therefore, this study investigates how facilitated peer discussions contribute to adolescents’ (n = 237, 50.2% girls, mean age = 15.43) interpretation of mediated risk behavior and real-life social norms for multiple media formats (films and series, reality TV, online video) and risk behaviors (alcohol, tobacco, and drug use). The study uses a mixed methods approach to test intervention effects while capturing the complexity of adolescent peer discussions. A two-arm parallel cluster randomized control design to test the intervention is combined with content analysis of verbatim transcribed group discussion data to investigate the contribution of group discussion tone and to contextualize our findings. While no main effects of he intervention were found regarding interpretations and social norms for media formats and risk behaviors combined, effects were found on specific interpretation processes for portrayals of specific behaviors in specific media formats. This suggests that facilitated peer discussions have potential, but that one size does not fit all.