The Long Reach of Peer Influence on Emerging Adults\u27 Sexual Activity

Researchers, parents, and adolescents recognize that peers are central to adolescent development (e.g., Waldrip, Malcolm, & Jensen-Campbell, 2008) and often influence sexual activity (e.g., Dishion, Ha, & Veronneau, 2012). Yet, despite this abundance of evidence, several questions remain. First, most research has explored the influence of peers during adolescence in predicting sexual behaviors. Much less has examined whether and to what extent peers affect emerging adults\u27 sexual behaviors both long term and contemporaneously (see Chapter 9, this volume). Second, of that research which does include an examination of peer influence on sexual activity among emerging adults, the issue of whether and how peer relationships influence sexual behaviors among individuals in committed relationships, while also accounting for characteristics of these intimate relationships, has yet to be examined. Finally, much of the literature on peer effects and sexual activity tends to be atheoretical. As such, it is difficult to determine the underlying mechanisms that account for these associations. To fill these gaps, we focused on how peers criminal activity, provision of emotional support, and permissive sexual attitudes and behaviors influenced emerging adults\u27 involvement in sexually non-exclusive behaviors, number of casual sex partners, and lifetime number of sex partners. These sexual behaviors have potential to influence the development and maintenance of committed intimate partnerships in emerging adulthood and beyond