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Sexual health communication in adolescence is important for sexual well-being. With limited empirical work utilizing longitudinal methodologies, this study aimed to investigate how the frequency of sexual communication with parents, peers, and dating partners changes across adolescence and varies based on sex, race/ethnicity, and sexual orientation. Participants included 886 U.S. adolescents (54.4% females; 45.9% White, 22.6% Hispanic/Latinx, 21.6% Black/African American) surveyed yearly from middle school through 12th grade. Growth curve models were used to estimate trajectories of the frequency in communication. Results showed curvilinear trajectories for adolescents' sexual communication with their parents, best friends, and dating partners over time. Although all three trajectories showed curvilinear patterns, sexual communication with parents and best friends increased earlier in adolescence and leveled off, while sexual communication with dating partners was lower in early adolescence and showed a steep increase across adolescence. Communication trajectories significantly diverged depending on adolescents' sex and race/ethnicity but not their sexual orientation. This study provides the first evidence of developmental changes over time in adolescent sexual communication with parents, best friends, and dating partners. Developmental implications for adolescents' sexual decision making are discussed.

Popularity and likability--two measures of adolescent peer status--have been examined frequently within Western cultures but relatively rarely within Eastern cultures. This study offered a cross-cultural comparison of adolescent peer status to examine whether these constructs and their correlates vary between the United States and China. The study consisted of a sample of adolescents from China and the United States (N = 864, M[subscript age] = 15.95; 50.5% female). Adolescents completed sociometric peer nominations assessing popularity, likability, and five behavioral correlates: aggression, victimization, prosocial behavior, sad affect, and anxious behavior. Results suggest that popularity may be more differentiated from likability in the United States than in China. More specifically, the association between popularity and likability was stronger in China, and the behavioral correlate profiles of these peer constructs was more similar within China than within the United States. Another notable finding was that popularity was significantly positively associated with aggression in the United States but was significantly negatively associated with aggression in China. Results are discussed through the lens of cultural differences in the meaning of peer status.

This study examined whether conformity to high‐ but not low‐status e‐confederates was associated with increases in identification with popular peers and subsequent increases in self‐esteem. A sample of 250 adolescents (55.1% male; Mage = 12.70 years; 40.3% White, 28.2% Black, 23.4% Hispanic/Latino, and 7.7% multiracial/other) participated in a well‐established experimental chat room paradigm where they were exposed to norms communicated by high‐ and low‐status e‐confederates. Results revealed that for boys in the high‐status condition only, but not girls, the positive relation between conformity and self‐esteem was mediated by greater response alignment with popular peers. These findings bolster prior research by suggesting that conformity to popular peers may be partly motivated by drives for self‐esteem and alignment with a valued reference group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While most parents support their adolescents receiving school-based sex education, there is variability in which sex education topics receive the most support from parents. Conservative political orientation and greater religiosity have been independently associated with parents' lack of support for school-based sex education; however, no studies have examined the intersection of these two factors. The three goals of this study were to: 1) identify how specific sexual education topics cluster together to form content areas; 2) examine if religiosity and political orientation are uniquely associated with these content areas; and 3) examine if political orientation moderates the relationship between parents' religiosity and their perceived importance for the specific sex education content areas. Participants were a national sample of 881 US parents. The sex education topics clustered into three content areas: Factual Knowledge (e.g., STI transmission), Practical Skills (e.g., how to access condoms), and Pleasure and Identity (e.g., pleasurable aspects of sex). Politically conservative and more religious parents reported the lowest perceived importance for each content area. Importantly, these main effects were qualified by a significant interaction: parents who reported both political conservativism and high levels of religiosity reported the lowest perceived importance for these three content areas being taught. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most peer influence research examines socialization between adolescents and their best friends. Yet, adolescents also are influenced by popular peers, perhaps due to misperceptions of social norms. This research examined the extent to which out-group and in-group adolescents misperceive the frequencies of peers' deviant, health risk, and adaptive behaviors in different reputation-based peer crowds (Study 1) and the prospective associations between perceptions of high-status peers' and adolescents' own substance use over 2.5 years (Study 2). Study 1 examined 235 adolescents' reported deviant (vandalism, theft), health risk (substance use, sexual risk), and adaptive (exercise, studying) behavior, and their perceptions of jocks', populars', burnouts', and brains' engagement in the same behaviors. Peer nominations identified adolescents in each peer crowd. Jocks and populars were rated as higher status than brains and burnouts. Results indicated that peer crowd stereotypes are caricatures. Misperceptions of high-status crowds were dramatic, but for many behaviors, no differences between populars'/jocks' and others' actual reported behaviors were revealed. Study 2 assessed 166 adolescents' substance use and their perceptions of popular peers' (i.e., peers high in peer perceived popularity) substance use. Parallel process latent growth analyses revealed that higher perceptions of popular peers' substance use in Grade 9 (intercept) significantly predicted steeper increases in adolescents' own substance use from Grade 9 to 11 (slope). Results from both studies, utilizing different methods, offer evidence to suggest that adolescents misperceive high-status peers' risk behaviors, and these misperceptions may predict adolescents' own risk behavior engagement.