Peer selection and socialization effects on adolescent intercourse without a condom and attitudes about the costs of sex.

This study investigated peer selection and socialization effects on sexual behavior and attitudes using 1,350 15- to 18-year-old students participating in two waves of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. Regarding socialization effects, friends' intercourse without condoms predicted later individual intercourse without condoms positively. Friends' attitudes about the costs of sex predicted later individual attitudes positively and intercourse without condoms negatively. The latter relation was stronger for females than for males. Regarding selection effects, individual attitudes predicted later friends' attitudes positively, but the strength of this effect varied by ethnicity. The results suggest that adolescents socialize friends to have similar sexual attitudes and behavior but tend to select friends based on similar attitudes rather than similar behaviors.

Adolescent sexual behavior and attitudes: a Costs and Benefits approach.

PURPOSE: The majority of past research conceptualized adolescent sexual attitudes as a single factor that included both Costs and Benefits of sexual behavior. The current study examined the independent influences of attitudes concerning the costs, such as embarrassment and pregnancy, and benefits, such as physical pleasure, of sexual intercourse on reports of actual engagement in sexual intercourse controlling for age, gender, religion, and cognitive ability. METHODS: This study utilized data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health). Participants were 14,871 adolescents aged 15 and older who completed the Wave I In-Home Interview. Hierarchical regression was used to examine the relation between Costs and Benefits and the variables of age, gender, religion, and cognitive ability. Logistic regression was used to predict engagement in sexual intercourse at Wave I and Wave II from measures of costs, benefits, age, gender, religion, and cognitive ability. RESULTS: The measure of Costs and Benefits demonstrated good psychometric properties. Both Costs and Benefits were significantly associated with concurrent and future sexual activity after controlling for demographic variables (age, religion, gender, cognitive ability). In addition, both Costs and Benefits also predicted sexual initiation between Waves I and II. CONCLUSIONS: The current study demonstrated the importance of both Costs and Benefits in predicting later sexual activity. Although attitudes concerning costs were slightly more influential in predicting sexual activity, our results suggest that interventions designed to delay sexual activity should include components of both Costs and Benefits.