Longitudinal Associations Between Sexual Communication With Friends and Sexual Behaviors Through Perceived Sexual Peer Norms

ABSTRACT

The role of peers in adolescents’ sexual behaviors is not yet fully understood. We investigated the association between sexual communication with friends (at T1) and subsequent changes in adolescents’ experience with sexual behaviors (between T1–T3), and examined whether this association was explained by adolescents’ perceptions of three sexual peer norms (at T2): (1) peers’ sexual behaviors (descriptive norms), (2) peers’ approval of sexual behaviors (injunctive norms), and (3) peer pressure to have sex. The data source was Project STARS, a longitudinal study on adolescent sexual development in the Netherlands, collected via online self-report questionnaires from 1,116 adolescents (11.5–17.9 years). Adolescents who communicated more frequently with their friends about sexuality-related topics at T1 reported significantly larger increases in their experience with different sexual behaviors between T1–T3. More sexual communication with friends also predicted adolescents subsequently perceiving more 1) peer sexual behaviors, 2) peer approval of sex, and 3) peer pressure to have sex. These stronger perceptions, in turn, predicted larger increases in their sexual behaviors between T1–T3. After adjusting for the three norms simultaneously, the main association between sexual communication with friends and sexual behavior change weakened but remained significant. Inspection of specific indirect effects showed this link was explained by injunctive norms only. No gender differences were found.

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the following statisticians for providing advice with regard to the statistical analyses: Joran Jongerling, Assistant Professor at the Department of Psychology, Erasmus University Rotterdam, the Netherlands; Stephen Kaptoge, Senior Statistician, Department of Public Health and Primary Care, University of Cambridge, UK; Daan Nieboer, and Lu Wang, researchers from the Department of Public Health, Erasmus Medical Center, the Netherlands.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Financial Disclosure

The authors have indicated they have no financial relationship relevant to this article to disclose.

Additional information

Funding

Data for the current study were collected as part of a larger longitudinal study conducted in the Netherlands called “Project STARS” (Studies on Trajectories of Adolescent Relationships and Sexuality), which is funded by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO) and the Fund for Scientific Research on Sexuality (FWOS) (NWO Grant no. 431-99-018). The Ph.D. project of the first author, of which the present study was a part, was supported by the Coordination for Improvement of Superior Level Personnel (CAPES) [Grant Number 7974/13-2].