Citation
Trinh, Sarah L.; Lee, Jaemin; Halpern, Carolyn Tucker; & Moody, James W. (2019). Our Buddies, Ourselves: The Role of Sexual Homophily in Adolescent Friendship Networks. Child Development, 90(1), e132-47. PMCID: PMC6157003Abstract
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.URL
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/cdev.13052Reference Type
Journal ArticleYear Published
2019Journal Title
Child DevelopmentAuthor(s)
Trinh, Sarah L.Lee, Jaemin
Halpern, Carolyn Tucker
Moody, James W.