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. 2014 Sep;50(9):2221-7.
doi: 10.1037/a0037300. Epub 2014 Jul 7.

Experimentally measured susceptibility to peer influence and adolescent sexual behavior trajectories: A preliminary study

Sophia Choukas-Bradley  1 , Matteo Giletta  1 , Laura Widman  1 , Geoffrey L Cohen  2 , Mitchell J Prinstein  1
Affiliations

Experimentally measured susceptibility to peer influence and adolescent sexual behavior trajectories: A preliminary study

Sophia Choukas-Bradley et al. Dev Psychol. 2014 Sep.

Abstract

A performance-based measure of peer influence susceptibility was examined as a moderator of the longitudinal association between peer norms and trajectories of adolescents' number of sexual intercourse partners. Seventy-one 9th grade adolescents (52% female) participated in an experimental "chat room" paradigm involving "e-confederates" who endorsed sexual risk behaviors. Changes in participants' responses to risk scenarios before versus during the "chat room" were used as a performance-based measure of peer influence susceptibility. Participants reported their perceptions of popular peers' number of sexual intercourse partners at baseline and self-reported their number of sexual intercourse partners at baseline and 6, 12, and 18 months later. Susceptibility was examined as a moderator of the longitudinal association between perceptions of popular peers' number of sexual intercourse partners and trajectories of adolescents' own numbers of partners. High perceptions of the number of popular peers' sexual intercourse partners combined with high peer influence susceptibility predicted steeper longitudinal trajectories of adolescents' number of partners. Results provide novel preliminary evidence regarding the importance of peer influence susceptibility in adolescents' development of sexual behaviors.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Interaction effect between peer influence susceptibility and adolescents' perceptions of popular peers' number of sexual intercourse partners on adolescents' growth of number of partners.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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