Adolescent relationships:
Love
Lenka Lacinová
Adolescents' romantic relationships
research
Romantic love and adolescence → natural
association
Empirical research → relatively brief history
Romantic relationships (RR) as a
conclusion of social relationships research
line: mother/child; father/child; siblings
relationships; peer relationships; friendship;
romantic relationships.
Adolescent romantic relationships
research has a short history:
Why?
Good research is theoretically driven.
Main theories of emotional and social
development offer relatively poor fit with
the realities of the most adolescents'
experiences with love and partnership.
Adolescents' RR are short-term and
characterized by transiency and fluidity.
The importance of studying adolescent
romance
Romance is in the forefront of
adolescents' minds.
Romance is an important content of
fantasy and real adolescents' world.
Adolescent romance is one of the basic
building stones for future partnerships in
adulthood.
Exploring of adolescent romance is
inherently connected with other areas –
e.g. identity development, self-esteem.
Research approaches
are focused primarily on:
previous experiences in close
relationships and its formative
influences on RR in adolescence
RR possible consequences and
correlates in other areas of
psychosocial development
RR description
Previous experiences and its
formative influences
Parent-child relationship
(attachment theory)
Marital relationship of parents
(social learning theory)
Peer relationships and friendship
(peers as a context for formation of
early partnership)
Romantic relationships – correlates
and consequencies
intimity and identity development
self-concept
depressive symptomatology
risk behavior
Descriptions studies
The high variability of RR form is the
reason of this research approach.
timing of early RR
romantic experiences intensity or
quantity
relationships quality
individual RR representations
Theories of romantic relationships
development in adolescence
W. Furman &
E. A. Wehner
(1997)
B. B. Brown
(1999)
W. Furman & E. A. Wehner
characterize RR in adolescence as a
gradual emergence of four behavioral
systems:
attachment
affiliation
caregiving
sex/reproduction.
Interlude - attachment theory
John Bowlby (1969)
„An enduring
emotional tie to a
special person,
characterized by a
tendency to seek and
maintain closeness,
especially during
times of stress. “
Early and middle adolescence
Attachment and caregiving behavioral
system is less likely in early and middle
adolescence.
Affiliation prevails in this period.
Sex/reproductive system emerges.
Late adolescence and early
adulthood
Attachment/caregiving system is present in
late adolescence or early adulthood.
In early adulthood romantic relationships
involve all four behavioral systems.
B. B. Brown (1999)
emphasizes the peer context role for
development of RR in adolescence;
describes four development stages
characterised by a specific form of
mutual partnership of adolescents as
well as by peer context, in which
romantic activities occur.
Initiation stage:
11 – 13 years of age
cca 11 – 13 years of age represents imaginary turning point
of social activity of adolescents in peers context
re-orienting social needs on peers of the opposite sex
basic goal of this period is to obtain confidence in the own
ability to establish romantic relationship and make sure
about one's own attractiveness to the opposite sex
adolescents gradually expand their self-image by the role of
self as a potential romantic partner
romantic activities usually take place with the support
of peer groups
Status stage:
14 – 16 years of age
growing social pressure from the peer
group to have a partner that is
positively assessed and accepted by
this group
an inappropriate partner can lower
adolescent’s social status
Affectionate stage:
17-20 years of age
significant change of the meaning
of romance
compared to previous phases relationship
with romantic partner has a value in itself
(previously, RR was more significant in
shaping their own self-image or status in the
adolescent peer group)
adolescents experience deeper feelings of
commitment and more frequent sexual
activity
caregiving behavior appears in this phase
Bonding stage:
around 21 years of age
the relationship depth in all features of
the previous stage is preserved and
extended by a pragmatic perspective
there is a common
future perspective of partners
relationship combines attraction,
intimacy, mutual caregiving and many
times leads to a marriage
Adolescents and their representation of
romantic relationships:
ELSPAC
Semistructured interview (at 13, 15 and 17
years) captures:
representation of the meaning of term
“dating somebody”.
the responses were analyzed as a whole,
i.e. we examined the occurrence of
individual answers belonging to pre-pared
categories within answers to all the
following questions:
Questions
1) What do you think dating somebody means?
2) In what do you think it can be nice?
3) In what do you think it may not be nice?
4) Which qualities should your life partner have,
what is most important for you?
5) Which qualities should he/she not have?
6) Are you dating somebody?
7) Which qualities do you like about your
boyfriend/girlfriend?
8) Which qualities do you not like about him/her?
Categorization and sample
to categorize adolescents’ responses about
what “they think dating somebody means“,
above mentioned concept by W. Furman
and E. A. Wehner (1997) was adopted
responses of a sub-sample composed of
96 respondents were analyzed (54% boys;
46% girls), with whom a semi-structured
interview was conducted in three waves of
data collection (in 13, 15, 17 years)[1]
Description of categories
attachment (e.g. safe place, confiding,
trust, support, help with problem-solving);
affiliation (e.g. time spent together, having
fun, humor, mutual interests);
physical contact (e.g. kissing, holding
hands, hugging);
commitment (common future, fidelity,
declared willingness to make sacrifice for
one another, restricting oneself to the
benefit of the relationship or the partner).
Frequency of the individual categories in
the examined issues (in %)
13 years 15 years 17 years
Attachment 12.5 66.7 66.7
Affiliation 61.5 68.8 75.0
Physical
contact
17.7 22.9 24.0
Commitment 1.0 47.9 55.2
The developmental trends of the
representation of the meaning of “dating
somebody” (in %)
Trend Attachment Affiliation Physical
contact
Commitment
Growing 54.2 28.1 15.6 54.2
Declining 0.0 14.6 9.4 0.0
Mixed 21.9 14.6 17.7 17.7
Constant
(0)
14.6 5.2 52.1 28.1
Constant
(1)
9.4 37.5 5.2 0.0
Conclusion
The development of the representation of
romantic relationships in the period
between early and late adolescence
stemming from the description of individual
trends in the frequency of categories that
adolescents use to delineate it is in
accordance with the above-mentioned
theoretical conceptions by W. Furman & E.
A. Wehner (1997) and B. B. Brown (1999).