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Adolescent Sexual Development and Peer Groups: Reciprocal Associations and Shared Genetic and Environmental Influences

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Abstract

Peer groups influence the emergence of sexual behaviors in adolescence, but many details regarding the mechanisms underlying these effects have yet to be described. We examined the phenotypic, genetic, and environmental links between both antisocial and prosocial peer characteristics, and several sexual behaviors from middle childhood to late adolescence (ages 11, 14, and 17 years) using a longitudinal twin sample (N = 3762). Antisocial peers predicted greater engagement in both normative (e.g., dating) and non-normative (e.g., early sexual intercourse) sexual behaviors, while prosocial peers were associated with a lower likelihood of engaging in non-normative sexual behaviors. Reciprocal effects were also observed such that early sexual experiences were associated with a more antisocial and less prosocial peer groups later in adolescence. Behavioral genetic models indicated that most of the overlap between peer group characteristics and sexual behavior was due to shared environmental influences. That is, some features of the adolescent environment exert a press toward (or against) antisocial peers and sexual behaviors. Together, the results extend the existing literature by highlighting the ways through which peer affiliations are related to sexual development in adolescence.

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Notes

  1. Freely estimating the intercepts at each measurement occasion helped to account for mean level change in peer behavior over time. Mean level change over time was not explicitly modeled here because of the practical limitations of having only three time points, and the fact that growth trends were not a focus of the study. Preliminary latent growth curve models, however, suggested little variability in the general growth trends (i.e., small slope variance), and when there is little variability in growth trends the paths in the residual structure will be very similar to those obtained in a model with a growth factor included (i.e., a latent growth model with structured residuals; Curran, Howard, Bainter, Lane, & McGinley, 2014).

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by United States Public Health Service grants R01 AA09367 (McGue), R01 AA024433 (Hicks), and T32 AA007477 (F. Blow) from the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism and R37 DA005147 (Iacono), R01 DA013240 (Iacono), and R01 DA039112 (Durbin) from the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

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  1. Department of Psychiatry and Addiction Center, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, 48109, USA

    D. Angus Clark, Mary M. Heitzeg & Brian M. Hicks

  2. Department of Psychology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA

    C. Emily Durbin

  3. Department of Psychology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA

    William G. Iacono & Matt McGue

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Clark, D.A., Durbin, C.E., Heitzeg, M.M. et al. Adolescent Sexual Development and Peer Groups: Reciprocal Associations and Shared Genetic and Environmental Influences. Arch Sex Behav 50, 141–160 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-020-01697-9

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