EARLY SEXUAL INITIATION - THE ROLE OF PEER NORMS

Objective. To elucidate which components of peer norms influence the p rocess of sexual initiation for young adolescents. Design. Prospective cohort study. Setting. Fourteen elementary and middle schools in an u rban public school district. Participants. The 1389 sixth-grade studen ts who completed the questionnaire at the beginning (time 1) and at th e end (time 2) of the school year comprise the study sample. Mean age at time 1 was 11.7 years. Results. Of students entering the sixth grad e, 30% (n = 416) reported having already initiated sexual intercourse, 5% (n = 74) reported initiating sexual intercourse during the sixth-g rade school year (initiated group), and 63% (n = 873) reported not hav ing initiated sexual intercourse by the end of the sixth-grade school year (never group). Demographic comparisons revealed that students in the initiated group were significantly more likely than students in th e never group to be older (11.9 years vs 11.6 years), male (58% vs 37% ), African-American (70% vs 51%), attending a poorer school (87% vs 85 %), and living in an area with a high proportion of single-parent fami lies (45% vs 41%). Self-reports and reports of peers' participation in nonsexual risk behaviors were more common for students in the initiat ed group. Students in the initiated group were more likely than studen ts in the never group to perceive: 1) a high prevalence of sexual init iation among peers; 2) social gains associated with early sexual inter course; and 3) younger age of peers' sexual initiation. Students in th e never group were more likely to believe that sexually-experienced 12 -year-old boys would be negatively stigmatized compared with students in the initiated group. Three predictive models were developed to test the relationship between peer norms and the process of initiation. Th ese models demonstrate that the strongest predictor of sexual initiati on in sixth grade is having high intention to do so at the beginning o f sixth grade. The strongest predictor of high intention is belief tha t most friends have already had sexual intercourse. Perceptions of soc ial gain and stigma for sexually-experienced 12-year-old boys act inde pendently of intention to decrease risk of early sexual initiation. Co nclusion. Early sexual intercourse is not an unplanned experience for many teens. Decisions about initiation are strongly bound to social co ntext with peers playing an important role in creating a sense of norm ative behavior. Specific components of peer norms impact the process o f sexual initiation in both positive and negative ways. Interventions aimed at delaying the onset of sexual initiation need to focus on coho rt norms as well as on an individual's perceptions and behaviors.