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

Abstract

Researchers seeking to understand teen sexual behaviors often turn to age norms, but they are difficult to measure quantitatively. Previous work has usually inferred norms from behavioral patterns or measured group-level norms at the individual level, ignoring multiple reference groups. Capitalizing on the multilevel design of the Add Health survey, we measure teen pregnancy norms perceived by teenagers, as well as average norms at the school and peer network levels. School norms predict boys’ perceived norms, while peer network norms predict girls’ perceived norms. Peer network and individually perceived norms against teen pregnancy independently and negatively predict teens’ likelihood of sexual intercourse. Perceived norms against pregnancy predict increased likelihood of contraception among sexually experienced girls, but sexually experienced boys’ contraceptive behavior is more complicated: When both the boy and his peers or school have stronger norms against teen pregnancy he is more likely to contracept, and in the absence of school or peer norms against pregnancy, boys who are embarrassed are less likely to contracept. We conclude that: (1) patterns of behavior cannot adequately operationalize teen pregnancy norms, (2) norms are not simply linked to behaviors through individual perceptions, and (3) norms at different levels can operate independently of each other, interactively, or in opposition. This evidence creates space for conceptualizations of agency, conflict, and change that can lead to progress in understanding age norms and sexual behaviors.

Norms as Group-Level Constructs: Investigating School-Level Teen Pregnancy Norms and Behaviors

“…And, past research suggests that there may be important aspects of schools that directly or indirectly support this type of bifurcated socialization within their halls (Moody 2001). This paper demonstrates the usefulness of this concept, but our ongoing research (Mollborn, Domingue, and Boardman 2014) is identifying within-school (in addition to between-school as we have done here) sources of the complex process of pregnancy socialization and their relationships to individual-level behaviors.…”

The Social Genome of Friends and Schoolmates in the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health

“…Adolescence is a critical developmental period in which patterns of health behaviors and overall mental health established during this phase continue through the lifecourse (16) and may affect socioeconomic attainment (17,18). Moreover, it is also a time of heightened salience for peer networks and influence (19)(20)(21)(22). For these reasons, in the present study we characterize genetic homophily within adolescent social networks in the United States.…”

“…Belsky is supported by a Jacobs Foundation Early Career Research Fellowship and by NIA grants R01AG032282 and P30AG028716. Conley is supported by a Russell Sage Foundation grant on "GxE and Health Inequality across the Lifecourse" (83- [15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29]. This research benefitted from GWAS results made publicly available by the SSGAC and GIANT consortia.…”

The social genome of friends and schoolmates in the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health

“…Adolescence is a critical developmental period in which patterns of health behaviors and overall mental health established during this phase continue through the life course ( 16 ) and may affect socioeconomic attainment ( 17 , 18 ). Moreover, it is also a time of heightened salience for peer networks and influence ( 19 – 22 ). For these reasons, in the present study, we characterize genetic homophily within adolescent social networks in the United States.…”