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Following the Leader: Examining peer influence on sexual behavior
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Research indicates that gender is one of the strongest correlates of juvenile delinquency. Additionally, a growing body of literature suggests that the association with delinquent peers is an important predictor of delinquent behavior. Although a few studies have examined how delinquent peers condition the gender-delinquency relationship, the authors extend this body of literature by using longitudinal data from a sample of adolescents to explore the extent to which internal and external constraints condition the relationship between gender, delinquent peers, and delinquent behavior. Findings indicate that delinquent peer association is an important predictor of delinquency generally, but the effect varies across gender. Specifically, delinquent peer associations are a better predictor of delinquency among boys compared to girls. In addition, the effect of delinquent peers on delinquency varies according to the level of internal and external constraints. Future research directions for unraveling the role of gender in youthful offending are discussed.
Gottfredson and Hirschi's recently introduced general theory of crime has received considerable empirical support. Researchers have found that low self-control, the general theory's core concept, is related to lawbreaking and to deviant behaviors considered by Gottfredson and Hirschi to be “analogous” to crime. In this article, we extend this research by assessing the effects of low self-control on crime and analogous behaviors and by using two distinct measures of self-control, an attitudinal measure and the analogous/behavior scale. Thus, following Gottfredson and Hirschi, we use analogous imprudent behaviors as outcomes of low self-control and as indicators of low self-control's effects on crime. We also examine an important but thus far neglected part of the theory: the claim that low self-control has effects not only on crime but also on life chances, life quality, and other social consequences. Consistent with the general theory, we found that both measures of self-control, attitudinal and behavioral, have effects on crime, even when controlling for a range of social factors. Further, the analysis revealed general support for the theory's prediction of negative relationships between low self-control and social consequences other than crime—life outcomes and quality of life.
This research examined how parent-adolescent communication about initiating sex and condoms influenced the relationship between peer norms and behavior. African American and Hispanic adolescents reported on parent-adolescent discussions about initiating sex and condoms, perceived peer norms about sex and condom use, and their own behavior. Communication about sex and perceived peer norms about sex were each related to sexual behavior, and communication about condoms and peer norms about condoms were related to condom use behavior. For both sex and condom use, the peer norm–behavior relationship was moderated by parental communication: Peer norms were more strongly related to behavior among adolescents who had not discussed sex or condoms with a parent. Communication was also related to teens naming a parent as their best source of information about sex. Results suggest that a lack of communication may cause adolescents to turn to peers and that peers may then influence their behavior.
Researchers of peer relations in late middle childhood and early adolescence have often neglected to examine the context in which social relations occur. The present study was designed to examine one aspect of the context of peer relations-the social networks of males and females. Fourth- and fifth-grade children were asked to rate their peers using friendship and play rating scales and to describe their same-sex peers in open-ended interviews. Although males and females did not differ in the number of best friends they reported, males were found to have larger social networks than females. Further, for males, position in a social network was more highly linked with acceptance by the peer group. Finally, males were concerned with attributes that could be construed as important for status in the peer group, and females were concerned with attributes that appeared essential to relationships with a few friends.
With data from a junior high school in an urban area of North Carolina we use log-odds ratios and a nested contingency table model to investigate homogeneity bias in adolescent friendship choice along the dimension of sexual behavior. Females, both black and white, tend to name friends whose sexual behavior is like their own even when grade, other more visible deviant behaviors, and a composite index of deviance proneness are taken into account. In contrast, neither sexual intercourse nor any other deviant behavior considered in this analysis is a significant factor in accounting for male adolescent friendship structure. We suggest that the differential reputational consequences for males and females who have intercourse may account for the observed difference by sex in the friendship choice-sexual behavior relationship.
In a naturalistic study of sex differences in friendship patterns and peer group structure during adolescence, 130 groups composed of 321 adolescents were observed in three high schools and six out-of-school settings. No sex differences were found in the percentages of males and females observed in dyads or with a companion of the opposite-sex. Male friends knew each other longer than did female friends or male-female friends. Lastly, during adolescence, groups observed out of school became smaller and more heterosexual, while in-school groups remained large and unisexual. The need for further observational research on the patterning of male and female relationships during the transition from childhood to early adolescence was emphasized.
This three-wave longitudinal study investigates the main and interaction effects of parenting dimensions (i.e., support, monitoring, and psychological control) and best friend delinquency on adolescent delinquent behavior. The sample consists of 433 Dutch adolescents who had reciprocal friendships within the first year of secondary education. Structural equation modeling analyses reveal that adolescents' delinquent behavior influenced their best friends' delinquency but not vice versa. Higher levels of parental support and monitoring, as well as lower levels of psychological control, are associated with decreased levels of adolescent delinquency. Multigroup analyses show no moderating effects of parenting on the longitudinal associations between best friend delinquency and adolescent delinquent behavior.
Integration of disciplines, theories and research orientations has assumed a central role in criminological discourse yet it remains difficult to identify any concrete discoveries or significant breakthroughs for which integration has been responsible. Concentrating on three key concepts: context, mechanisms, and development, this volume aims to advance integrated scientific knowledge on crime causation by bringing together different scholarly approaches. Through an analysis of the roles of behavioural contexts and individual differences in crime causation, The Explanation of Crime seeks to provide a unified and focused approach to the integration of knowledge. Chapter topics range from individual genetics to family environments and from ecological behaviour settings to the macro-level context of communities and social systems. This is a comprehensive treatment of the problem of crime causation that will appeal to graduate students and researchers in criminology and be of great interest to policy-makers and practitioners in crime policy and prevention.
This chapter discusses sex differences in adolescent relationships in friendship and status. The topic of sex differences in forming and maintaining friendships has not often been addressed directly. Sex segregation probably depends heavily on the nature of activities and settings available to adolescents, which none of the studies attempted to measure. Student norms concerning peer relationships probably specify as to which school settings are appropriate for mixed-sex groups and which confine interaction to same sex groups. It is likely that current conflicting evidence on this topic results from the general failure to consider the organizational and normative context in which peer relationships occur. Males tend to associate in larger groups than do females during the elementary school years, but this is probably a function of sex differences in games and activities that vary in the number of people required.
This chapter discusses the relationship between friendship selection and peer influence. The relatively impersonal influence of nonselected others has been conceptualized in a number of ways: (1) an interpersonal environment, (2) an elite, (3) a school or peer context, and (4) a value climate. A student's interpersonal environment consists not of selected friends but of everyone registered at the college whose name the student recognized. The second type of nonselected peers who are believed by some to have influence are school elites. A third type of influence that short-circuits the friendship selection process is the influence of peer contexts. Contextual effects, like interpersonal environments, have been said to affect students by establishing a certain ambience. This commentary assembles empirical evidence that confirms the link between selection and influence and provides a framework for codifying the research findings in future research.
A framework for the analysis of adolescent problem behaviors was explicated that draws on five major theories of human behavior.
The framework emphasizes intentions to perform behaviors and factors that influence intentions as well as moderate the impact
of intentions on behavior. The framework was applied to the analysis of adolescent sexual risk behavior in a population of
668 middle school youths in inner-city New York. Adolescents completed self-administered questionnaires in small group settings,
assessing their past sexual activity, intentions to engage in sexual intercourse, expectancies about the advantages and disadvantages
of engaging in sexual intercourse, normative pressures to engage in sex, the image implications of engaging in sex, emotional
and affective reactions to engaging in sex, and self-efficacy with respect to engaging in sexual intercourse. The framework
yielded high levels of predictability of intentions to have sex, with variables from each category proving to be of predictive
value. The findings have important implications for social work researchers interested in the prevention of adolescent problem
behavior.
Employing a longitudinal design, we examined intimate affect and intimate behaviors in the social interactions of adolescent boys and girls. A total of 128 adolescents were observed in a semistructured interaction with a same-gender friend in Grades 9,10, and 11. Developmental changes were evident. Intimacy based on discussion and self-disclosure increased between Grades 9 and 10, and the capacity for sustained intimate affect increased between Grades 10 and l l. These developments occurred for both boys and girls. Moreover, the boys and girls did not differ in their sustainment of shared affect in interactions with their friends. However, they did differ in intimate behaviors: The girls were more likely than the boys to establish intimacy through discussion and self-disclosure; the boys were more likely than the girls to establish intimacy through shared activities. The implications of these findings regarding development and differential gender patterns of intimacy are discussed.
Using panel data from a junior high school system in an urban area of Florida we investigate adolescent friendship structure along the dimension of sexual behavior. White females and white males tend to name same-sex friends whose sexual intercourse behavior is like their own. Sexual intercourse is not a significant factor in accounting for adolescent friendship structure among blacks, males or females. We then specify models which permit us to answer whether observed homogeneity bias in sexual behavior is due to a process of influence, deselection, and/or acquisition. The sexual behavior of white females is influenced by their same-sex friends' sexual behavior. These is no evidence that adolescents deselect friends on the basis of dissimilarity in sexual behavior. Both white males and white females acquire friends whose sexual behavior is like their own. We suggest that race-sex differences with respect to degree of adolescent-friend similarity in sexual behavior and the sources of this similarity may center around differences in group relevance or salience of the sexual act and race-sex differences in the nature of friendships.
Using reports from a sample of 79 adolescent boys and 95 adolescent girls and their divorced mothers, we used structural equation modeling to investigate the effects of mothers' dating behaviors on adolescents' sexuality. The single mothers in this study had divorced in the past 2 years and had an adolescent child in the seventh or eighth grade. Our results indicated that mothers' dating behaviors directly influenced the sexual behaviors of adolescent boys, and indirectly influenced adolescent girls' sexuality by affecting their sexual attitudes. Mothers' attitudes of sexual permissiveness influenced daughters' sexual attitudes and behaviors, but not sons'.
This study examines factors that distinguish between sexually active adolescents who are at risk for pregnancy and for sexually transmitted diseases and sexually active teens who are at lower risk for these outcomes. The study is based on a representative survey of 2,567 teenagers from four rural Midwestern counties. Several characteristics of the adolescents and their families were found to distinguish between sexual risk takers and those at lower risk for sexually transmitted diseases and teenage pregnancy.
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This study hypothesized that closeness of peer group relationships would be a critical factor in determining peer influence on substance use. The hypothesis was examined in a panel study of the effects of peer approval and behaviour on cigarette smoking, drinking and other drug use among Irish adolescents. In support of the closeness hypothesis, the influences relating to peers identified by respondents as ‘friends' were better predictors of drug use than were the corresponding factors relating to same-aged peers, while the person identified as the ‘best friend’ seemed uniquely influential. Furthermore, there were important differences associated with maintenance of drug use as opposed to initiation, both as regards the type of friends and the mediating factors that were important. In particular, it emerged that several good friends were influential (by means of example and approval) in initiation, while the best friend had a critical role in the maintenance of drug use.
In recent years, popular media has drawn attention to “mean girls” and their negative treatment of others, particularly other females. But while the attention to girls' aggression and their mistreatment of their peers highlights understudied aspects of female behavior, it neglects the beneficial aspects of female friendship. We argue that compared to relationships with males, friendships with females provide more social control, fewer opportunities and less motivation for offending and may therefore discourage crime. Because an adolescent's gender likely influences the association between the gender of one's friends and crime, we anticipate that the association will be stronger for females than for males. The relationship is also likely affected by the context in which relationships originate; we expect that those that develop in less conventional contexts will have weaker effects on crime. We explore these hypotheses with a comparative analysis of effects of friendships on property crime in two samples of youth: those who live at home and attend school and those who are homeless and spend their days and nights on the street. Our findings support our hypotheses. The relationship between female-dominated friendship networks and property crime is negative and significant; however, this association is strongest for school females, weaker for school males and females who live on the street, and nonsignificant for homeless males.
In this chapter I review recent research on the nature, meaning, and impact of extrafamilial relationships during adolescence. I use findings of quantitative and qualitative studies to develop the idea that close friendships, wider networks of peers, and romantic relationships have distinct meanings and significance for the developing adolescent. Sociologists' work inevitably focuses attention on the ways in which the adolescent's social addresses and locations (gender, race, social class) influence many aspects of these early relationships. The review also highlights some limitations of the dominant perspective on adolescent relationships, attachment theory, and provides suggestions for future research (particularly in the area of romantic relationships, where the literature is growing but still relatively undeveloped).
In order to provide a fuller and more satisfying description of the significant others in the social world of an adolescent, the Social Relations Questionnaire was developed and then administered to almost 3000 seventh-through tenth-graders in a midwestern suburban school district. The sample was randomly split in half and analyses were run on both halves separately to test for replicability. Results indicated that parents and siblings are almost always listed as significant others by adolescents in all four grade levels. Furthermore, the majority of adolescents listed at least one extended family adult and at least one nonrelated adult as important in their lives. The nonrelated adults lived closer to the adolescents and were seen more frequently and in more contexts than extended family members. Fewer extended family adults were listed in the older grades. Females listed more significant others than males both overall and in terms of both same- and opposite-sex nonrelated young people. As hypothesize, an increasing number of opposite-sex young people was listed as a function of grade level. Most nonrelated young people listed (a loose definition of peers) were from the same grade, same school, and same neighborhood as the respondent. The authors conclude that age-segregation in this community is not extreme (over 40% of the significant others listed were adults) and that the Social Relations Questionnaire provides a useful and holistic description of an adolescent's social world.
This study examined the relative influence of the best friends and social crowds of older adolescents on cigarette smoking. The data were examined to determine if there were differences in influence as a function of sex, conformity, or the mutuality of the friendship. This study used a longitudinal design that enabled the separation of the effects of peer influence from those of selective association. The results showed that social crowds differed in mean level of cigarette smoking, with burnouts smoking the most and jock/preps smoking the least. The majority of best friendships were homogeneous for social crowd. Best friend influence predicted change in cigarette smoking over a one-year period, while social crowd influence appeared to be minimal. Conformity was positively related to susceptibility to peer influence, although mutuality of the friendship and sex of the subject were not.
The interrelationship of family and peer experiences in predicting adolescent problem behaviors was examined in an 18-year longitudinal sample of adolescents (N = 198) from conventional and nonconventional families. Positive associations among early childhood predictors and adolescent problem behaviors were consistent with problem behavior theory. The most powerful predictors of teen drug use and delinquent behaviors were similar behaviors by peers. Peer behaviors, however, were in turn predicted by earlier family-related variables and the quality of peer relationships in childhood. This study provides supporting evidence that strong peer effects in adolescence reflect even earlier processes in childhood and highlight the importance of linkages from early childhood experiences in family and peer contexts to the development of problem behaviors in adolescence. Implications for prevention and intervention programs are discussed.
Recent investigations of risk factors for adult sexual assault have focused on a varietyof behavioral and cognitive variables, including victim risk-taking behaviors. In this study, cognitive appraisals of riskyactivities, behavioral intentions to engage in risk-taking behaviors, and alcohol use were examined in relation to future involvement in risk-taking behaviors and the incidence of sexual assault in a sample of college women. At Time 1, 50 (26%) participants reported a historyof sexual victimization and at Time 2, 16 (12.7%) reported new sexual victimizations. Discriminant function analysis indicated that alcohol use and expected involvement in risky activities at Time 1 were associated with new sexual victimizations at Time 2. Hierarchical regression analysis revealed that alcohol use and expected involvement in risky activities at Time 1 were predictive of frequencyof involvement in riskyse xual activities at Time 2. The implication of these findings for future research is discussed.
From learning and opportunity perspectives, peer group structural dimensions shed light on social processes that can amplify or ameliorate the risk of having delinquent friends. Previous research has not accounted for a primary criminological variable, self-control, limiting theoretical clarity. The authors developed three hypotheses about self-control's potential role in deviant peer structure: it may underlie and explain the (spurious) relationship between deviant peers or peer structure and delinquency, be partially exogenous to deviant peers and deviant peer structure, and moderate the effects of deviant peers and deviant peer structure. To test these hypotheses, the authors used data from a longitudinal sample of adolescents containing peer self-reports of delinquency. The results suggest that self-control and deviant peers are complementary. This is the first study demonstrating this relationship with self-reports of deviance rather than perceptions. Less support was found for the conditioning impact of deviant network structure than in previous work. Some differential patterns also emerged by gender and race. Implications of these findings are discussed.
Research on self-control theory consistently supports its central prediction that low self-control significantly affects crime. The theory includes other predictions, however, that have received far less scrutiny. Among these is the argument that self-control is developed early in childhood and that individual differences emerging then persist over time. The purpose of this study is to provide a rigorous test of the stability thesis. First, we examine the extent of stability and change in self-control for a national sample of U.S. children age 7 to age 15. Second, we consider whether parenting continues to affect self-control during adolescence—a period after the point at which self-control differences should be fixed. The analysis revealed strong absolute and relative stability of self-control for more than 80 percent of the sample, and this stability emerged in large part as early as age 7. Contradicting the theory was a smaller portion of respondents (roughly 16 percent) who experienced substantial absolute and relative changes in self-control even after the age of 10. Moreover, parental socialization continued to affect self-control during adolescence, even after accounting for both prior self-control and exposure to parental socialization.
The aim of this study was to develop and test a model of the influence of parents and friends on adolescent female sexual behavior that would integrate age-related changes in these influences. Self-report measures assessing discussion of sexual topics with parents and friends, perceived approval of sexual behavior, sexual attitudes, and sexual behavior were administered to 267 high-school and college-aged female subjects. As expected, results suggested that the influence of friends and parents varied as a function of the age of the adolescent. The effects of discussion with mother and parental approval on sexual behavior operated indirectly through sexual attitudes, with the effect of discussion with mother being the strongest in the 9th and 10th grade. The indirect influence of friends' approval on sexual behavior via sexual attitudes varied across the three age groups, peaking in llth-12th grades; the direct effect of friends' approval on sexual behavior peaked in the college sample.
Drawing on relevant theory and research, it is argued that the impact of delinquent peers on delinquency is conditioned by (1) attachment to peers, (2) time spent with peers, and (3) the extent to which peers present delinquent patterns (i.e., present definitions favorable to delinquency, model delinquent behavior, and differentially rein force delinquency). Regression analyses with data from the National Youth Survey provide partial support for these arguments. When the above variables are at their mean or lower levels, a measure of association with peers who engage in serious delinquency has no impact or a negative impact on delinquency. When the above variables are at higher levels, delinquent peers (serious) has a strong, positive impact on delinquency. A measure of association with peers who engage in minor delinquency, however, is not conditioned by the above variables.
Data on peer relations were obtained when a group of children were 2.5 yr old and again when they were 7.5 yr old. The children who at age 2.5 were friendly, involved with their peers, and able to cope with aggressive peers were likely, at age 7.5, to spend many hours outside school with peers, to be socially at ease, and to be the ones who decided with whom they would play and what they would play. In other words, sociability at 2.5 was positively related to sociability at 7.5. Social behavior at 7.5 had very different meanings for boys than for girls. The highly social boys, when with peers, tended to have extensive peer relations; that is, they usually played with groups of boys. The highly social girls, when with peers, tended to have intensive peer relations; that is, they usually played with only 1 other girl.
477 freshmen attending 8 colleges affiliated with the churches of Christ responded to questions about their own religious and sexual behaviors, as well as those of their parents and two best friends. Four hypotheses, designed to test the relative influence of parents and peers on the behaviors of adolescents, were advanced in this paper. The religious behaviors of parents and peers were found to be related to both the religious and sexual behaviors of adolescents, although peer religiosity completely overshadows parental religiosity in this regard. This is particulary interesting in that peer religious behaviors (to the best of my knowledge) have not been looked at for potential influence on adolescents' sexual behaviors. Parent and peer sexual behaviors and expectations were also significantly related to adolescents' sexual behaviors, but again peers were the more influential reference group. So strong is peer influence in these data, it is argued that parents no longer constitute an effective reference group by the time adolescents reach college. This holds true for this sample in spite of their being highly religious, a finding that seems to contradict the notion that religiosity extends the influence of parents into the college years.
False consensus refers to the tendency of people to overestimate the population prevalence of their own opinions, preferences, and behaviors. Four explanations have been proposed for this phenomenon: selective exposure to others who believe and act similarly, the salience of one's own beliefs and behaviors, logical information processing about the perceived causes of behavior, and motivation to justify nonnormative beliefs and behaviors. Female participants (n = 260) completed a questionnaire regarding their sexual experiences and perceptions of their peers' sexual activity. They also completed measures of selective exposure, salience of their own sexual behaviors, information processing, and motivation for false consensus. The results replicated previous findings of overestimation of the level of peer sexual activity and of false consensus on sexual behavior among young women: Sexually experienced women made higher estimates of peer sexual activity than did sexually inexperienced women. In addition, the results provided evidence supporting the selective‐exposure explanation but no evidence to support any of the other explanations.
Shows that the reference group concept is useful for understanding premarital sexual behavior among college adolescents. Questionnaire data obtained from 93 midwestern undergraduates suggest the sexual behavior of students tends to be consistent with the standards and behavior of peer referent. Peer influence increases as students move from the freshman to senior yr. and is greater among social categories, i.e., Greek members and females, traditionally thought to be more susceptible to peer influence. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Despite efforts to dismiss it, the finding that men's same-sex friendships are less intimate and supportive than women's is robust and widely documented. We tested six possible explanations for this finding: lack of parental models for friendship, emotional restraint, homophobia, masculine self-identity, competitive strivings, and role conflicts. Of these, emotional restraint and homophobia toward gay men provided the most explanatory power for gender effects on both intimacy and support in best friendships. Masculine self-identity mediated the relationship between gender and intimate–but not supportive–friendship; and having a same-sex parent with close friendships mediated the relationship between gender and supportive–but not intimate–friendship. Unexpected findings about the importance of a status orientation toward friendship suggest that researchers should abandon the male-deficit model of friendship in favor of studying the reasons why some men and women seek close same-sex friendships.
This study investigated the association between adolescents' perceptions of parental and peer attitudes towards sexuality and AIDS precautions, and the risky sexual behaviours of 1008 sexually active, heterosexual undergraduate students aged 17-20 years. Students were asked to rate the extent to which their mothers, fathers and friends would agree or disagree with 16 statements reflecting support of the adolescent engaging in sexual behaviour and using sexual precautions, including precautions against AIDS. The adolescents also indicated whether they were sexually active and their level of condom use in both ‘regular’ (or steady) and ‘casual’ relationships. Results indicated that adolescents perceived their parents as non-liberal in their sexual attitudes and relatively unlikely to discuss sex or precautions with them. Parents were viewed as more accepting of their sons' sexual behaviours than of their daughters'. Adolescents believed that peers were more likely to discuss sexuality and precautions than parents, and were more liberal in their sexual attitudes. Adolescent sexual risk-taking was related to the perceived attitudes of significant others in ways which varied across gender and type of relationship. Implications for interventions are discussed.
Peer similarity in delinquency has been studied extensively. But basic questions remain about measuring peer delinquency and how important the nature of relationships with delinquent peers is. This article uses data from the NSCR School Project, which has collected unusually detailed information about delinquent peers and the social networks of adolescents. We examine differences in the roles of regular friends and best friends with regard to peer similarity in delinquent behavior. We also contrast two methods of measuring peer delinquency: the conventional one of asking respondents about their peers, and the social network method, by which peers report about themselves. The results show that respondents can have best and regular friends who differ in their degree of delinquency, and that the association between respondent and peer delinquency does not differ much between friends and best friends. At the same time, our results suggest that both types of peers influence the level of respondent delinquency. Measures based on the direct network method resulted in higher estimates of peer delinquency, but in lower estimates of the association between respondent and peer delinquency.