Doc Reaches Out to Misbehaving Teens on MySpace
Can Social Networking Improve Adolescent Health?
"That is very creative," she said of the interventions. "I definitely think social networking is a great tool for at-risk adolescents."
Moreno said she hoped future research would show how effective online interventions could be in changing not just online, but real behavior as well.
"I think the overall goal is to see if these Web sites can be used to improve adolescent health care," she said.
But quantifying real-world behavior changes will prove difficult.
Moreno noted that even the behaviors are questionable and may be just boasting rather than indicators of drug and sexual problems.
Actually tying real-world behavior to online behavior would be what Moreno called "the holy grail" in this area of research.
"I think that our eventual goal is to see whether online interaction can facilitate real health behavior change," Moreno said.
But while there may be a way to change online behavior in teens, it remains unclear how that would translate to real life.
And at-risk youths may need to be reached out to in a stronger manner.
I just don't know whether a single intervention could have that much impact," said Kaslow.
ABC News' Lauren Cox contributed to this report.
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