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Our Buddies, Ourselves: The Role of Sexual Homophily in Adolescent Friendship Networks
Author(s) -
Trinh Sarah L.,
Lee Jaemin,
Halpern Carolyn T.,
Moody James
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
child development
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.103
H-Index - 257
eISSN - 1467-8624
pISSN - 0009-3920
DOI - 10.1111/cdev.13052
Subject(s) - homophily , friendship , psychology , developmental psychology , peer group , preference , social psychology , adolescent health , longitudinal study , sexual behavior , sexual identity , ostracism , human sexuality , sociology , gender studies , medicine , statistics , nursing , mathematics , economics , microeconomics
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.