The Influence of Peer Sexual Activity Upon College Students' Sexual Behavior (Report‪)‬

The interplay between parental and peer influence on adolescents' and young adults' acquisition of sexual information and willingness to engage in sexual behavior has been the subject of extensive research (e.g., Allen, Porter, & McFarland, 2006; Darling & Hicks, 1982; Gebhard, 1977; Jaccard, Blanton, & Dodge, 2005). Parents have historically been the primary source of sexual information before the child reaches adolescence and turns to peers for more specific guidance regarding sexual behavior. Parental discussions typically occur early in puberty and typically peak around 9th or 10th grade (e.g., Dilorio, Kelley, & Hockenberry-Eaton, 1999; Treboux & Busch-Rossnagel, 1995). Thereafter, parental influence loses power and peers step in as a part-time pseudo-parent when the child reaches adolescence and begins searching for social and sexual knowledge. Peer influence is at its peak during 11th and 12th grade (Treboux & Busch-Rossnagel). Kinsman, Romer, Furstenberg, and Schwarz (1998) reported that peers create a need for normality in an individual, causing sex to be initiated in order to meet this standard of normality. The need for normality takes over and triggers an overestimation in the individual's own judgments of the frequency of peer's sexual activity (Scholly, Katz, Gascoigne, & Holck, 2005). Additionally, Brady, Dolcini, Harper, and Pollack (2009) reported those teens that are faced with stressful life trials, and simultaneously lack a strong peer support system, would engage in risky sexual behavior. Individuals who engage in high-risk behaviors are frequently aware that their behaviors are risky but do not believe they are personally at risk (van der Pligt, 1996). In fact, previous research (Snyder & Rouse, 1992; Wiebe & Black, 1997) indicates high-risk individuals' sexual behavior is not influenced by the lack of sexual knowledge; it only serves to create inaccurate perceptions for those who are at lower risk. Based upon the observations above, individuals faced with stressful experiences and who lack a strong support network may be more likely to rely upon perceptions of peer norms that may define acceptable levels of sexual activity. Moreover, if more frequent sexual activity is perceived to be normative, the likelihood of engaging in risky sexual behavior (e.g., unprotected sex) may be greater. Entry into college presents most adolescents and young adults with a significantly stressful experience (e.g., Alipuria, 2008; Zaleski, Levey-Thors, & Schiaffion, 1998). Moreover, Franklin and Dotger (2011) found that freshmen (relative to seniors) enter college lacking significant sexual knowledge in a variety of areas (viz., birth control, sexual relations, reproduction, and male biological sexuality).