Sexual Minorities’ Peer Network Characteristics and Delinquency across Adolescence

• In Event: Innovations in Delinquency Research: Parental Incarceration, Peer Networks, and Neighborhood Context

Abstract

In this study, I contribute to literature on the social networks of adolescents as well as to literature on the role of sexual minority status on delinquency using data from the PROSPER longitudinal study of approximately 10,000 rural and semi-rural adolescents in Iowa and Pennsylvania. First, I build on prior research on the social world of adolescent youth by examining the network characteristics of sexual minorities across the entirety of adolescence. Whereas previous studies examining sexual minorities’ peer networks have been limited to only a few waves of data, I am able to assess network trends from sixth through twelfth grade. Further, I extend prior work that has assessed whether differences in network outcomes exist by examining differences by both sexual minority status and gender. Second, this study is among the first to analyze the interplay between sexual identity and network characteristics on behavioral change across adolescence. By focusing on how differences in friendship network characteristics affect sexual minority adolescents’ delinquency by gender, this study provides greater depth to our understanding of how sexual identity structures adolescents’ social lives and their involvement in delinquency.

Author

• Nayan Ramirez, Penn State University