Social Network Clustering of Sexual Violence Experienced by Adolescent Girls

We used data on 3,139 female social network friendship dyads from 3 waves of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (wave I: 1994-1995; wave II: 1996; and wave IV: 2007-2008) to assess whether friends' reports of experiencing sexual violence (SV) and friends' substance use risk scores predicted whether adolescents and young adults would experience SV themselves. We also used longitudinal analyses to test the associations of combined wave-I and -II risk factors with wave-IV reports of SV and of combined wave-I and -II SV with network connectivity at wave II. After adjustment for a participant's substance use risk score, each 1-point increase in a friend's substance use risk score increased a respondent's odds of experiencing SV by 1.19 (95% confidence interval: 1.03, 1.36). Having a friend who reported SV increased a respondent's odds of reporting SV by 1.95 (95% confidence interval: 1.25, 3.07), although not after we included school-level fixed effects. Having a friend who experienced SV in adolescence did however increase the respondent's odds of reporting SV as a young adult by 1.54 (95% confidence interval: 1.00, 2.37). Respondents who reported SV by wave II had less network connectedness at wave II. Experiences of SV and substance use within adolescent girls' friendship networks are linked to risk for SV into young adulthood, which suggests that network-focused SV prevention and intervention approaches may be warranted.