College-bound teens’ decisions about the transition to sex: Negotiating competing norms

Abstract

The normative influence of parents, close friends, and other peers on teens’ sexual behavior has been well documented. Yet, we still know little about the processes through which these oftentimes competing norms impact teens’ own sexual norms and behaviors. Drawing on qualitative data from 47 interviews conducted with college-bound teens, we investigate the processes through which perceived parental, close friend, and other peer norms about sex influenced teens’ decisions about whether and when to have sex. Although virtually all teens perceived that most of their peers were having sex and that parents were almost universally against teen sex, some teens had sex and others did not. Our findings demonstrate that teens who remained virgins and those who were sexually active during high school often negotiated different sets of competing norms. Differences in understandings of age norms, in close friends’ sexual norms and behaviors, and in communication about sex with parents, close friends and other peers were related to different levels of sexual behavior for teens who otherwise shared many similarities in social location (e.g.. class, race, and educational status). While virgins reported an individualized process of deciding whether they were ready for sex, we find that their behavior fits within a traditional understanding of an age norm because of the emphasis on avoiding negative sanctions. Sexually experienced teens, on the other hand, explicitly reported abiding by a group age norm that prescribed sex as normal during high school. Finally, parents’ normative objections to teen sex – either moral or practical – and the ways they communicated with their teen about sex had important influence on teens’ own sexual norms and behaviors during high school.

Understanding multiple levels of norms about teen pregnancy and their relationships to teens’ sexual behaviors

“…As discussed above, the normative environments are not always in line with one another, and they are at times quite contradictory (Bearman & Brückner, 2001; Sennott & Mollborn, 2011). As such, the match between an individual’s norms and the norms of her or his environment may give important clues about how and when social context may influence behavior.…”

“…Yet perhaps more than norms regulating other behaviors, teen pregnancy norms might be expected to have distinct behavioral implications in different reference groups. Research has shown that many teens get inconsistent or even contradictory messages about sex, contraception, pregnancy, and abortion from schools, peers, and family members (Bearman & Brückner, 2001; Sennott & Mollborn, 2011). Opposing normative pressures from influential reference groups, or “systems” of “competing norms,” are known to exist but have rarely if ever been documented empirically (Hechter & Opp, 2001).…”

“…Sexuality norms communicated to teens often focus on particular behaviors in this chain. Past research has identified two important norms related to teen pregnancy (Sennott and Mollborn, 2011): a norm discouraging teen sex (often based on a moral justification), and another encouraging contraception (frequently with a practical justification so that teens can avoid negative consequences of sex). A teen reporting embarrassment at the prospect of a teen pregnancy may be embarrassed because a pregnancy would be evidence that she had sex, or that she did not contracept effectively, or there may be a distinct norm explicitly regulating teen pregnancy.…”

Trajectories of intimate partnerships, sexual attitudes, desire and satisfaction

“…Indeed, the gender socialization in Switzerland pushes a large share of women to find their main source of meaning and identity within the family and the private sphere, while for men, the participation in the labor force has such a function (Levy & Widmer, 2013). In this sense, one may hypothesize that men's attitudes toward sexuality and sexual desire are more related to elements of the life course that take place in the public sphere, such as the comparison to friends and peers, from the beginning of their sexuality onward (Furstenberg et al, 1987;Kinsman et al, 1998;Miller & Moore, 1990;Sennott & Mollborn, 2011).…”

“…Studies dealing with sexuality in a life course perspective mainly focus on the first sexual intercourse and sexual Advances in Life Course Research xxx (2014) xxx-xxx behavior during teenage years (Bozon, 1993(Bozon, , 1998Dickson et al, 1998;Sennott & Mollborn, 2011;Upchurch et al, 1998;Whitbeck, Conger, & Kao, 1993). They stress that the age at first sexual intercourse is associated with attitudes toward sexuality.…”