Alicia Doyle Lynch

Sexual partner accumulation from adolescence through early adulthood: the role of family, peer, and school social norms

PURPOSE An early age of sexual initiation and sexual activity with multiple partners are risk factors for an array of detrimental outcomes. Drawing on social norms theory, this study assessed the role of subjective and descriptive social norms from parents, peers, and schoolmates on trajectories of sexual partner accumulation from early adolescence through early adulthood. METHODS Data were drawn from the in-home survey sample of Add Health, following 14,797 youth from adolescence through early adulthood. Social norms data were drawn from youth, parent, schoolmate, and school administrator reports. Multi-level growth models assess how parent, peer, and school social norms predicted initial levels and growth in sexual partner accumulation. RESULTS Parent and peer approval of youth sexual behavior, as well as lower perceived negative repercussions of pregnancy, predicted greater initial levels and greater growth over time in the accumulation of sexual partners. Similarly, youth attending schools with a greater proportion of sexually experienced schoolmates reported higher initial levels of sexual partners. In contrast, greater parental warnings regarding negative consequences of sex predicted heightened sexual partner accumulation. Some moderation by youth gender and age emerged as well. CONCLUSIONS Results highlight the role of both subjective and descriptive social norms, suggesting the importance of understanding and seeking to influence the social beliefs and expectations of youth and their families.

Gender, male-typicality, and social norms predicting adolescent alcohol intoxication and marijuana use

OBJECTIVE This study examined the direct and interactive effects of gender, male-typicality, and social norms in predicting the initiation and longitudinal patterns of alcohol intoxication and marijuana use in U.S. youth. METHOD Data were drawn from a longitudinal survey of 10,588 youth who participated in the in-home survey of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health). Multilevel growth modeling used data from three time points to assess trajectories of substance use from adolescence to young adulthood. RESULTS Analyses indicated that gender, male-typicality, as well as home availability, friend social norms, and schoolmate social norms predicted initial levels of intoxication and marijuana use, with gender, friend norms, and schoolmate norms also predicting differential rates of growth over time in intoxication and marijuana use. Interaction results indicated that gender moderated male-typicalitys relationship to both substance use variables, and home availabilitys relationship to alcohol intoxication. CONCLUSIONS These findings extend the literatures regarding interrelations among gender, gender roles, social norms, and health risk behaviors by (a) locating the genesis of those effects in adolescence, (b) identifying gender and social norms to be salient in terms of both initiation and growth of substance use over time, (c) suggesting that gender differences should be understood as moderated by other social-contextual variables, and (d) arguing that prevention efforts should address gender and gender roles more explicitly in programming.

Direct and interactive effects of parent, friend, and schoolmate drinking on alcohol use trajectories

Objective: This study considered the unique and interactive roles of social norms from parents, friends and schools in predicting developmental trajectories of adolescent drinking and intoxication. Design and outcome measures: Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, which followed adolescents (N = 18,921) for 13 years, we used discrete mixture modelling to identify unique developmental trajectories of drinking and of intoxication. Next, multilevel multinomial regression models examined the role of alcohol-related social norms from parents, friends and schoolmates in the prediction of youths’ trajectory group membership. Results: Results demonstrated that social norms from parents, friends and schoolmates that were favourable towards alcohol use uniquely predicted drinking and intoxication trajectory group membership. Interactions between social norms revealed that schoolmate drinking played an important moderating role, frequently augmenting social norms from parents and friends. The current findings suggest that social norms from multiple sources (parents, friends and schools) work both independently and interactively to predict longitudinal trajectories of adolescent alcohol use. Conclusions: Results highlight the need to identify and understand social messages from multiple developmental contexts in efforts to reduce adolescent alcohol consumption and alcohol-related risk-taking.

Peer Relationships and Positive Youth Development

The peers of adolescents can be the source of both positive and problematic development among youth. Positive peer relationships are associated with school engagement, perceived academic competence, school achievement, and character virtues, whereas involvement with problematic peer groups is linked with risk behaviors (e.g., delinquent acts and bullying, respectively) and lowered school functioning. Although over time youth spend increasingly more time with peers than with their family, parents remain a primary source of support for most adolescents. In studies of adolescents, parental monitoring, warmth, and communication have been associated with academic achievement, lower levels of risk taking, and positive mood. In this chapter we discuss the importance of peers in promoting positive youth development (PYD) and recommend ways schools can build environments rich with supportive peers who value achievement. Furthermore, we show that young people typically do not turn away from parents to embrace their peers but rather both parents and peers can cumulatively support youth. We also discuss how the school-wide peer culture can promote both positive peer relationships and positive behaviors among youth, for example, through the creation of peer mentoring programs. Finally, we explore how strengthening the connections between in-school programs and out-of-school-time (OST) youth development programs can enhance across the ecology of youth the positive contributions of peer relationships to PYD. We call for policy innovations that build bridges among the key contexts of youth.