Our Buddies, Ourselves: The Role of Sexual Homophily in Adolescent Friendship Networks.
The present study tests the assumption that peers wield sufficient influence to induce sexual homophily (i.e., similarities in sexual experiences). Because girls face greater stigma for their sexual experiences than do boys, sexual homophily may be greater in girls' friendship networks than in boys'. Stochastic actor-based models were used to analyze network data (n = 2,566; ages 14-18) from two high schools in the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health. Sexual homophily was present in friendship networks. Girls and boys were equally susceptible to their friends' influence, but the former exhibited a stronger preference for befriending same sexual debut status peers than the latter. The findings suggest that adolescents-particularly girls-"curate" their networks to minimize peer ostracism.
Duke Scholars
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Related Subject Headings
- Social Networking
- Social Identification
- Sexual Behavior
- Schools
- Peer Group
- Male
- Longitudinal Studies
- Humans
- Friends
- Female
Citation
Published In
DOI
EISSN
ISSN
Publication Date
Volume
Issue
Start / End Page
Related Subject Headings
- Social Networking
- Social Identification
- Sexual Behavior
- Schools
- Peer Group
- Male
- Longitudinal Studies
- Humans
- Friends
- Female