Social Norms and Sexual Activity in U.S. High Schools

Abstract

This paper estimates a formal model of social norms with multiple equilibria using data from the Add-Health Survey of 20,000 U.S. high school students. The results suggest that there is considerable diversity in social norm equilibria, with some schools enforcing norms against sexual activity and others not doing so. The rate of sexual activity is about 5 percent lower in schools with norm-enforcing equilibria, suggesting that social norm effects are neither trivial nor decisive. Still, the most consistently significant factor affecting teen sexual activity is not the social environment or the school, but rather the family.