Talk About “Hooking Up”: The Influence of College Student Social Networks on Nonrelationship Sex

Abstract

This research considers how communication within college student social networks may encourage high-risk sexual relationships. Students (n = 274) described sexual scripts for hooking up and reported on peer communication, sexual behavior, and sexual attitudes. Students described varied hookup scripts, expressed ambivalent attitudes, and reported moderate participation in hookups overall. However, the most common hookup script, suggesting high-risk sexual activity (i.e., unplanned, inebriated sex), was featured in most accounts of students who themselves participated in hookups. Students overestimated how often others were hooking up, and these estimates were especially inflated by students who frequently talked about hooking up with friends. Among students with strong ties to peers, frequent peer communication about sex predicted participation in hookups and favorable attitudes about hooking up. Peer approval also predicted hookup behavior and attitudes.

Notes

¹ Dorsey et al. (1999) were concerned with the cohesiveness of students networks in the sense of interconnectedness of network ties (i.e., the extent to which there are direct ties between various members), whereas we are concerned with psychological closeness between an individual and student peers.

²However, the interactions supporting this conclusion were not directly reported in Manning et al. (2005).

³Students who were seriously dating or married were treated as a single category, since there were only seven married students in the sample.