Social features in internet-based programs to prevent alcohol consumption among adolescents: a scoping review

Lay Summary Alcohol consumption among adolescents is a social and public health issue. School-based programs are needed to prevent the onset of alcohol consumption during adolescence. Information and communication technologies offer new promising approaches to deliver preventive programs to these populations. The most traditional, successful programs use group dynamics within the classroom. However, the usefulness of social interaction features (SIF) within internet-based interventions remains unclear. The current scoping review aims to identify and evaluate the effectiveness of online and mobile psychosocial preventive interventions that use SIF and target adolescents. Thus, we conducted a scoping review with the aim to identify online and mobile psychosocial preventive interventions that use SIF to reduce adolescent drinking behavior. Our literature review identified eight different programs. Six of them showed positive results on outcome variables. However, only in two of these programs was it possible to determine that their success was partially due to the SIF. SIF seem to be useful to enhance the receptivity and usefulness of web-based prevention programs, but more evidence with appropriate research methods is required to assess these social features' effectiveness to improve web-based prevention programs for young people. Alcohol consumption among adolescents is a social and public health issue. School-based programs are needed to prevent the onset of alcohol consumption during adolescence. Information and communication technologies offer new promising approaches to deliver preventive programs to these populations. The most traditional, successful programs use group dynamics within the classroom. However, the usefulness of social interaction features (SIF) within internet-based interventions remains unclear. The current scoping review aims to identify and evaluate the effectiveness of online and mobile psychosocial preventive interventions that use SIF, and that target adolescents. Web of Science, Scopus and Google Scholar were electronically searched for all articles published between January 2011 and December 2020. Articles reporting on school-based, web-based interventions for adolescents to prevent alcohol consumption and that encouraged any kind of interaction between users ('social interactions') were eligible for inclusion. Fourteen articles were included in the review. These articles assessed eight preventive programs. Six programs showed positive results on outcome variables. In two of them, it was possible to determine that their success was partially due to the SIF. SIF seem to be useful to enhance the receptivity and usefulness of web-based prevention programs, but the current evidence of their effectiveness is scarce. More evidence is required to assess the effectiveness of these features and to improve programs having the objective of preventing the consumption of alcohol among young people.