Crystal Smit

Social Network Intervention vs. Mass Media Intervention 4 69 Kok, 2013). Therefore, it is conceivable that the success of peer-led interventions may depend on the prevailing social norms in the target network. As yet, only one social network intervention included the moderating role of social norms, finding that the children’s injunctive norms interacted with the success of the social network intervention promoting water consumption (Franken et al., 2018). That is, children who initially perceived high injunctive peer norms to consume water reported an increase in their water consumption (Franken et al., 2018). In this case, the promoted behavior in this intervention was in accordance with the norm children perceived beforehand. It is, therefore, plausible that social network interventions are more successful for children who perceive that the prevailing norm is in accordance with the promoted behavior. Nevertheless, it is also plausible that social network interventions are more effective for children who initially perceived a discrepancy between the prevailing norm and the promoted behavior. When the desired behavior is promoted in the intervention, it could be that they want to live up to the promoted norm and adjust their behavior accordingly. Thus far, there has been only one study that showed that the success of social network interventions depends on the prevailing injunctive norms and none on descriptive norms. Given the sparse research attention so far, this study explored the moderating role of both descriptive and injunctive norms. Thus, the current study tested whether an intervention utilizing peer influence was more effective than an active control condition—based on the principles of mass media campaigns—and a control without any intervention. We also investigated the moderating role of the prevailing social norms in the context. We hypothesized that children who were exposed to the social network intervention promoting water consumption as an alternative to SSB would report consuming more water post-intervention than those in the active control condition (H1a) and control condition (H1b). We also expected that children who were exposed to the social network intervention would report consuming less SSB post-intervention than those in the active control condition (H2a) and control condition (H2b). Finally, we explored the moderating role of descriptive and injunctive norms on the effectiveness of the social network intervention.