Models of sexuality within couples: the normative influence of the social network

This article presents analyses based on data from tie survey on Comportements sexuels and reactions au risque du SIDA en Belgique ('Sexual behaviour and reactions to the risk of AIDS in Belgium'). This was a telephone survey of 3719 individuals from a representative sample of the population aged between 15 and 59. The models of sexuality within couples theme provide the basis for exploring three aspects of partners' sociability and the normative influence of their social networks: the relationship between the ideal norms of the actors and the actual norms in the network comprising the circles of family, friends and colleagues; the links between the norms of the actors and their subjective perception of the social control exercised by the various circles of sociability; the structural end relational characteristics of the network, in particular of the circle of friends, likely to influence this relationship. The analyses show the normative influence of the network, and especially of the family circle, on the norms of ego. They also show that this normative influence is likely to be conditioned by the subjective perception of social control, as well as by certain structural characteristics of the network.