This paper explores the role of peer effects on early sexual debut for a sample of adolescents using data from the National Longitudinal Study on Adolescent Health (Add Health). Most studies analyzing peer influences ignore the “reflection” problem that occurs with studying peer effects. To...

This paper estimates the impact of family structure and family context on risky sexual behavior among African-Americans. The research on adolescent sexual behavior finds that youth are more likely to engage in sexual activity at an earlier age and have more partners when they are not raised in...

This paper estimates whether marriage can improve health outcomes for African-Americans through changes in risky health behaviors like smoking, drinking, and drug use. Using data from the National Longitudinal Study on Adolescent Health and propensity score matching methodology to account for...