Examining the relative influences of social capital on adolescent sexual behaviors

Background: Adolescents bear a disproportionate burden of sexually transmitted infections (STIs). Innovative solutions for promoting safe sexual health behaviors are needed to help reduce the rates of sexually transmitted diseases in this population. Research has suggested that adolescents are influenced by peers and by the behaviors of those peers. This study considers the extent to which adolescent friendship networks may be viewed as sources of social capital that influence adolescent sexual intercourse.

Methods: Secondary data analysis was conducted using nominated friendship data from Waves I and II of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. Wave I data were used to create indices of bonding and bridging social capital, within the immediate and broader peer groups, respectively. The outcome, sexual initiation, was assessed at Wave II. Logistic regression was conducted to determine the relative effects of the social capital indices on the likelihood of adolescent sexual initiation. Additionally, sensitivity and SIMEX analyses were used to address the effects of data limitations on the measures of association for bonding social capital and adolescent sexual initiation.

Results: The findings suggest positive associations between both bonding and bridging social capital and adolescent sexual initiation with a slightly stronger association for bridging social capital compared to bonding social capital.

Discussion: This study helps to illustrate the differential effects of bonding and bridging social capital on adolescent sexual behaviors, and indicate the potential for targeted interventions at these different sources of social capital to help reduce the burden of STIs among adolescents.