Crystal Smit

Social Network Intervention vs. Mass Media Intervention 4 85 DISCUSSION The Share H 2 O social network intervention aimed to positively alter children’s healthy drinking behaviors by exposing them to influence agents from their own classroom who promoted water consumption as an alternative to SSB. The current study tested the effectiveness of this approach by comparing it to an active control condition—based on the principles of mass media campaigns— and a control condition without any intervention. Furthermore, the moderating role of the prevailing social norms in the context was tested. The findings showed that children exposed to the Share H 2 O social network intervention consumed less SSB afterwards compared to children in the active control condition and control condition. No differences between the conditions were found for water consumption. However, the effectiveness of the social network intervention on water consumption seems to depend on the prevailing social norms. More specifically, children exposed to the social network intervention with initially higher perceived descriptive norms and lower perceived injunctive norms consumed more water afterwards compared to those in the active control condition and the control condition. Our findings regarding the effect on SSB consumption showed that after the intervention, children exposed to the social network intervention remained stable in their SSB consumption, while the children in the active control condition and control condition consumed more SSB. This finding is different compared to our previous pilot studies in which children exposed to the social network intervention decreased in their SSB consumption over time (Franken et al., 2018; Smit et al., 2016). A possible explanation may lie in seasonal differences. In the current study, the baseline measurement took place during the winter, while the intervention took place during the spring, which resulted in much weather difference between the two measurements. In the previous pilot studies (Franken et al., 2018; Smit et al., 2016), both measurements took place in the same season and the weather was therefore more stable. Thus, it may be that the social network intervention with influence agents spreading the message or behavior in their peer group prevented children from turning to SSB during warm weather. However, future research is