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Romantic relationships and sexuality in adolescence and young adulthood: The role of parents, peers, and partners
Daphne van de Bongardt1, Rongqin Yu2, Maja DekoviÄ2, and Wim H. J. Meeus2,3
1Research Institute of Child Development and Education (YIELD), Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
2Utrecht Centre for Child and Adolescent Studies (CAS), Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences, Utrecht University, Utrecht, the Netherlands
3Department of Developmental Psychology, Faculty of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Tilburg University, Tilburg, the Netherlands
The formation of romantic relationships and the engagement in sexual behaviours are considered normative and salient developmental tasks for adolescents and young adults. These developmental tasks are increasingly viewed from an ecological perspective, thus not only as individual processes, but also as strongly embedded in different social contexts, including the proximal social domains of parents, peers, and partners. This special issue brings together seven recent empirical studies on adolescents' and young adults' romantic relationships and sexuality in the context of relationships and interactions with parents, peers, and partners. In this editorial introduction, we describe two important recent changes in the theoretical perspectives on emerging romantic relationships and sexual activity: from risky behaviours to normative tasks, and from individual to contextualized processes. We then discuss recent advances in empirical research on romantic relationships and sexuality of adolescents and young adults. After that, we review the seven studies in this special issue, and discuss the contributions of these studies to the existing literature. Finally, we discuss directions for future research regarding how the interrelational perspective can be further incorporated into empirical research, and how the gap between the research fields on romantic relationships and sexuality may be bridged.
The development of the knowledge, skills, and experience that are needed for the formation of healthy and positive romantic relationships and sexuality is a life-long process. Romantic feelings and sexual experimentation early in life form the building blocks for personal preferences and boundaries pertaining to emotional and physical intimacy, which are reflected back in more mature romantic relationships and sexual behaviours later in life (De Graaf & Rademakers, 2006; Joyner & Campa, 2006). Adolescence and young adulthood are particularly salient developmental periods for the exploration of romantic relationships and sexual behaviours (Collins, Welsh, & Furman, 2009; Tolman & McClelland, 2011). According to the ecological perspective (Bronfenbrenner & Ceci, 1994), which has become a dominant paradigm in the field of developmental psychology, romantic relationships and sexual experiences do not exist in a social vacuum. Rather, social contexts and interpersonal relationships with significant others (e.g., parents, peers, partners) contribute significantly to the processes through which adolescents and young adults shape their romantic relationships and their sexuality (Kotchick, Shaffer, Miller, & Forehand, 2001; Smetana, Campione-Barr, & Metzger, 2006). The aim of the current special issue is to advance the existing knowledge on how romantic relationships and sexuality develop during adolescence and young adulthood in the context of the proximal ecological social domains of parents, peers, and partners.
In this editorial introduction, we describe two important recent changes in the theoretical perspectives on emerging romantic relationships and sexual activities: from risky behaviours to normative tasks, and from individual to contextualized processes. We then discuss recent advances in empirical research on romantic relationships and sexuality of adolescents and young adults. After that, we review the seven studies in this special issue, and discuss the contributions of these studies to the existing literature. Finally, we discuss directions for future research regarding how the interrelational perspective can be further incorporated into empirical research, and how the gap between the research fields on romantic relationships and sexuality may be bridged.
CHANGING PERSPECTIVES I: FROM RISKY BEHAVIOURS TO NORMATIVE TASKS
Romantic relationships and sexual activities of youth have long been equated with risk. Early romantic involvements, especially those during the first part of adolescence, have been linked to various negative outcomes, including depression, anxiety, substance use, and delinquent behaviours (for a review, see Connolly & McIsaac, 2009). A particularly persistent finding has been that teenage romantic affairs that result in early marriage are generally associated with a higher risk for marital dissatisfaction and divorce (Whisman, Johnson, Li, & Robustelli, 2014). With regard to sexuality, adolescent (or premarital) sexual activity has traditionally been investigated as potentially dangerous and harmful for individual as well as public health (Fergus, Zimmerman, & Caldwell, 2007). This line of research, focusing on the risks involved in early relationships and sexual behaviours, has been of critical importance in light of the high prevalence rates of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and unwanted teenage pregnancies (Finer, 2010; Forhan et al., 2009), and has yielded important knowledge about how to optimize prevention and intervention strategies that aim to promote youth's relational and sexual health (Connolly et al., 2014; Salazar et al., 2005). However, it tends to overlook the fact that early romantic relationships and adolescent sexual activity are not inherently risky.
Since last decade, the engagement in romantic relationships and emerging sexual activity are increasingly considered normative aspects of adolescent development and the transition to young adulthood (Collins et al., 2009; Tolman & McClelland, 2011). That is, romantic relationships and sexuality pertain to the expected behaviour patterns of adolescents and young adults, as evidenced by prevalence statistics from many Western countries. Concerning romantic relationship involvement, studies from Germany (Seiffge-Krenke, 2000), the Netherlands (De Graaf, Kruijer, Van Acker, & Meijer, 2012), Australia (Zimmer-Gembeck, 1999), and the USA (Carver, Joyner, & Udry, 2003) indicate that most teenagers in those countries have been engaged in one or more romantic relationships. Regarding sexual activity, in the USA (Martinez, Copen, & Abma, 2011), the UK (Mercer et al., 2013), and the Netherlands (De Graaf et al., 2012), more than half of the teenagers report having experience with sexual intercourse by the time they turn 18.
The ânewâ perspective on young people's engagement in romantic relationships and sexual behaviours, where these are considered as normative developmental phenomena during adolescence and young adulthood, has been increasingly utilized to guide a significant body of empirical work (for reviews, see Collins et al., 2009; Tolman & McClelland, 2011). In this growing line of research, scholars do not merely focus on potentially risky aspects of adolescent romantic relationships and sexuality, often followed by implications for how such behaviours can be prevented, but aim to better understand how the majority of adolescents' develop their romantic relationships and sexuality in a normative way. The resulting literature has accumulated important knowledge on how early romantic relationships and sexuality develop, and how to design effective comprehensive education programmes to promote healthy and positive relational and sexual development in youth (Kirby, 2008; Madsen, 2008). This change in perspectives on romantic relationships and sexual behaviours in adolescence and young adulthood from risky behaviours to normative tasks has guided empirical research to shift from an exclusive focus on identifying factors that may prevent youths from becoming involved in romantic or sexual relationships towards assessing factors that aid a more fundamental understanding of when, how, and why young people engage in romantic relationships and sexual behaviours. Also, it enabled the disentanglement of truly risky versus normative developmental trajectories, thus clarifying young people's different types of educational and health care needs.
CHANGING PERSPECTIVES II: FROM INDIVIDUAL TO CONTEXTUALIZED PROCESSES
According to the ecological perspective, which has become a dominant theoretical paradigm in developmental psychology over the past decades, changes in adolescents' behaviours, cognitions, and social relationships are the outcomes of continuous interactions between individual characteristics and socio-contextual factors, such as relations with parents and peers (Bronfenbrenner & Ceci, 1994). Consistent with this ecological approach, scholars have increasingly acknowledged that romantic and sexual developments during adolescence and young adulthood do not take place in a social vacuum (Smetana et al., 2006). As a result, attention for social contexts and interpersonal relations has become more prominent in the scientific study of romantic relationships and sexuality (for reviews see: Collins et al., 2009; Kotchick et al., 2001). Through this, valuable knowledge has been yielded about how developing romance and sexuality are linked to social contexts and interpersonal relations including parenting processes (De Goede, Branje, Van Duin, Van der Valk, & Meeus, 2012; De Graaf, Vanwesenbeeck, Woertman, & Meeus, 2011), peer norms (Van de Bongardt, Reitz, Sandfort, & DekoviÄ, 2015), and partner interactions (Aalsma, Carpentier, Azzouz, & Fortenberry, 2012).
The resulting body of literature has shown that parents, peers, and partners play important roles in shaping adolescent and young adult romantic relationships. In regard to the role of parents, according to attachment theory (Bowlby, 1982), adolescents construct working models of attachment, or mental representations of the self, and relationships, based on their relationship with their parents (Furman, Simon, Shaffer, & Bouchey, 2002). Adolescents subsequently use these working models to construct their later relationships with romantic partners (Furman et al., 2002). Empirical research provides support for these views (De Goede et al., 2012; Furman, Stephenson, & Rhoades, 2014; Seiffge-Krenke, 2006), showing, for instance, long-term positive associations between a secure attachment to parents and a secure attachment to romantic partners. Friendships also offer an important training ground for developing the capacities and expectations for later romantic relationships (Collins et al., 2009), as friendships and romantic relationships share various commonalities in that they are generally both voluntarily chosen, egalitarian, and based on reciprocity (Furman & Wehner, 1994). Consistent with social learning theory, longitudinal studies have shown positive linkages between the quality of adolescents' friendships (reflected in the levels of support, negative interaction, and power balance) and the quality of later romantic relationships (Yu, Branje, Keijsers, & Meeus, 2014). Furthermore, characteristics of romantic partners themselves, such as personality traits and self-esteem, also contribute to the quality of adolescents' romantic relationships (Collins et al., 2009).
In sexuality research, a consistent finding pertaining to the role of parents in healthy adolescent sexual development concerns the protective function of a high-quality relationship with parents. Adolescents who have a good relationship with their parentsâcharacterized by high levels of warmth, closeness, and supportâgenerally initiate sexual behaviour at a later age and engage in safer sexual behaviour (De Graaf et al., 2011; Kotchick et al., 2001). Concerning the peer context, a recent meta-analysis has shown differential relations between adolescents' own sexual (risk) behaviour and different types of sexual norms among peers (i.e., descriptive norms, injunctive norms, peer pressure, and risk norms), where adolescents' perceptions of descriptive sexual norms (peers' sexual behaviours) were most strongly related to their own sexual activity (Van de Bongardt et al., 2015). Regarding partners, it has been found that teenagers with more intimate relationships and who communicate more about contraception with their partner are more consistent in their contraceptive use (Manlove, Ryan, & Franzetta, 2007). However, the role of romantic partners in adolescents' sexual behaviours is still largely understudied, and deserves more attention.
CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE CURRENT SPECIAL ISSUE
The purpose of the current special issue is to expand the existing knowledge about how romantic relationships and sexuality develop during adolescence and young adulthood in the ecological context of interpersonal relations and interactive processes with parents, peers, and partnersâthree highly important proximal social domains (Collins et al., 2009; Smetana et al., 2006). To pursue a discussion on this topic, the current special issue presents seven empirical studies by scholars from six Western countries (Australia, Belgium, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, and the USA), who have examined adolescents' and young adults' developing romantic relationships and sexuality in relation to various aspects of relations with parents, peers, and partners. Three studies examined the formation of young people's romantic relationships (Connolly, Baird, Bravo, Lovald, Pepler, & Craig, 2015; Seiffge-Krenke, Persike, & Shulman, 2015; Walper & Wendt, 2015), whereas the other four studies focused on youth's developing sexuality (Beyers, Veryser, & Verlee, 2015; DeLuca, Claxton, Baker, & Van Dulmen, 2015; Reitz et al., 2015; Mastro & Zimmer-Gembeck, 2015).
CONTRIBUTIONS EXAMINING ROMANTIC RELATIONSHIPS
In the first contribution, Walper and Wendt (2015) used a behaviour systems perspective and attachment theory to examine longitudinal links between various characteristics (i.e., relatedness, negative conflict, emotional insecurity, and dominance) of relationships with parents and romantic partners among German late adolescents. Th...
