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The importance of adolescent dating relationships
Carmen Viejo Almanzor1, Virginia Sánchez Jiménez, Rosario Ortega Ruiz
1Universidad de Córdoba, Spain. z72vialc@uco.es
Background:
In recent years, an increasing number of studies have emerged that contribute to the explanation of the development and consolidation of adolescent romantic relationships. In this regard, Collins made a significant contribution to the previous models focusing on different stages; his proposal is focused instead on the meaning of each stage for adolescents. In attempting to find empirical support for this model, this paper analyses these couples' characteristics at a deeper level; all the areas identified by Collins were considered together: involvement, content, quality of the couple, and cognitive and emotional processes.
Method:
3,258 adolescents (48.6% males) in Andalusia were surveyed, selecting those who had a dating relationship at that time (N= 1,202). Cluster analysis and predictive discriminant analysis were run.
Results:
The results indicated four distinct groups of adolescent couples, which were different not only in the participants' age, but in all the dimensions analyzed.
Conclusions:
These results are discussed in terms of the significance of these variables for adolescents when defining their romantic relationships.
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