{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,30]],"date-time":"2026-07-30T09:03:20Z","timestamp":1785402200479,"version":"3.56.0"},"reference-count":50,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"5","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,26]],"date-time":"2026-04-26T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1777161600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/100000002","name":"National Institutes of Health","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","award":["1 P50 CA180906"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["1 P50 CA180906"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/100000002","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"crossref"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/100000002","name":"National Institutes of Health","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","award":["R01CA249883"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["R01CA249883"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/100000002","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"crossref"}]},{"award":["1 P50 CA180906"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["1 P50 CA180906"]}],"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/01cwqze88","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"award":["R01CA249883"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["R01CA249883"]}],"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/01cwqze88","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Behavioral Sciences"],"abstract":"<jats:p>This study examined the cross-lagged associations between self-reported exposure to and engagement with tobacco\/nicotine information on social media and depressive symptoms among young adults. Participants were 4267 20\u201332-year-olds (Mage 23.28, SD = 2.30 at baseline, 64.8% females) recruited in the Marketing and Promotions across Colleges in Texas study. Data for this study were collected in spring 2017 (baseline) and spring 2018 (follow-up). Results indicate that although self-reported exposure to and engagement with tobacco information, which were dichotomized, did not significantly predict subsequent depressive symptoms, young adults with clinically significant symptoms of depression were more likely than their peers to be exposed to (\u03b2 = 0.10, p &lt; 0.001) and engage with (\u03b2pro = 0.08, p &lt; 0.01; \u03b2anti = 0.08, p &lt; 0.05) tobacco information on social media one year later. The findings indicate that young adults with depressive symptoms may be susceptible to persuasive tobacco marketing on social media and in turn to potentially using tobacco and nicotine products. Findings call for regulation around tobacco marketing information on social media, especially for young adults with elevated depressive symptoms, a group at heightened risk for tobacco and ENDS use.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/bs16050653","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,29]],"date-time":"2026-04-29T10:34:42Z","timestamp":1777458882000},"page":"653","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Bidirectional Associations Between Engagement with Tobacco Information on Social Media and Young Adults\u2019 Depressive Symptoms: A Longitudinal Cross-Lagged Analysis"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"16","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-1358-8096","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Qinghua","family":"Yang","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Communication Studies, Bob Schieffer College of Communication, Texas Christian University, Fort Worth, TX 76129, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-6743-8512","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"C. Nathan","family":"Marti","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Kinesiology and Health Education, College of Education, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Jacob E.","family":"Thomas","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Kinesiology and Health Education, College of Education, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-5582-9540","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Alexandra","family":"Loukas","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Kinesiology and Health Education, College of Education, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,26]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","first-page":"e124","article-title":"E-cigarette advertising expenditures in the United States, 2014\u20132018","volume":"29","author":"Ali","year":"2020","journal-title":"Tobacco Control"},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"307","DOI":"10.1080\/07359683.2019.1680121","article-title":"A content analysis of the promotional strategies employed by e-cigarette brands on Twitter","volume":"36","author":"Alpert","year":"2019","journal-title":"Health Marketing Quarterly"},{"key":"ref_3","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"77","DOI":"10.1016\/S0749-3797(18)30622-6","article-title":"Screening for depression in well older adults: Evaluation of a short form of the CES-D (Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale)","volume":"10","author":"Andresen","year":"1994","journal-title":"American Journal of Preventive Medicine"},{"key":"ref_4","first-page":"1","article-title":"Social media use in 2021","volume":"1","author":"Auxier","year":"2021","journal-title":"Pew Research Center"},{"key":"ref_5","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"528","DOI":"10.1016\/j.jad.2023.10.053","article-title":"Social media and e-cigarette use: The mediating role of mental health conditions","volume":"344","author":"Azagba","year":"2024","journal-title":"Journal of Affective Disorders"},{"key":"ref_6","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"588","DOI":"10.1037\/0033-2909.88.3.588","article-title":"Significance tests and goodness of fit in the analysis of covariance structures","volume":"88","author":"Bentler","year":"1980","journal-title":"Psychological Bulletin"},{"key":"ref_7","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"326","DOI":"10.2105\/AJPH.94.2.326","article-title":"Young adults: Vulnerable new targets of tobacco marketing","volume":"94","author":"Biener","year":"2004","journal-title":"American Journal of Public Health"},{"key":"ref_8","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"63","DOI":"10.1016\/j.addbeh.2016.10.004","article-title":"Facebook dethroned: Revealing the more likely social media destinations for college students\u2019 depictions of underage drinking","volume":"65","author":"Boyle","year":"2017","journal-title":"Addictive Behaviors"},{"key":"ref_9","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Brailovskaia, J., and Margraf, J. 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