Romantic relationships are central in adolescents' social life and emotional experiences, and have important implications for socio-emotional adjustment and health. Surprisingly little work, however, has been done on these relationships. In our current grant, we examined the pattern of relations among adolescents' romantic relationships, their cognitive views of different close relationships, and psychosocial adjustment. Specifically. 197 high school seniors were interviewed thrice about their romantic relationships, friendships, and relationships with parents, completed questionnaires, and were observed with partners. Significant links were found among their relationships, views, and adjustment. These results are encouraging, but are limited by their cross-sectional nature. We propose to extend this research up by conducting a longitudinal study to a) describe the developmental course of romantic views and relationships, b) to examine how romantic views and relationships are related, c) to examine how they are related to views and qualities of other relationships, and d) to examine the links with sexual behavior and psycho-social adjustment. Multi-agent, multi-method data will be gathered from a cohort of 200 tenth grade adolescents with three subsequent waves collected yearly. In the first wave, adolescents will be observed interacting with their romantic partner, a close friend, and mother; they will be interviewed three times to assess their views of these close relationships. In the following waves, they will be interviewed about romantic relationships and observed with their partners. Questionnaires about relationships, sexual behavior, and adjustment will be gathered from multiple agents at all waves. Latent growth curve analyses will examine the predictors and outcomes of individual romantic and sexual development. The findings will have important implications for understanding adolescents' romantic and sexual behavior and the health problems associated with them.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
2R01MH050106-04A1
Application #
6203970
Study Section
Special Emphasis Panel (ZRG1-RPHB-1 (01))
Program Officer
Morf, Carolyn
Project Start
1996-06-01
Project End
2005-08-31
Budget Start
2000-09-01
Budget End
2001-08-31
Support Year
4
Fiscal Year
2000
Total Cost
$427,801
Indirect Cost
Name
University of Denver
Department
Psychology
Type
Schools of Arts and Sciences
DUNS #
City
Denver
State
CO
Country
United States
Zip Code
80208
Collibee, Charlene; Furman, Wyndol (2016) Chronic and Acute Relational Risk Factors for Dating Aggression in Adolescence and Young Adulthood. J Youth Adolesc 45:763-76
Golden, Rachel Lynn; Furman, Wyndol; Collibee, Charlene (2016) The risks and rewards of sexual debut. Dev Psychol 52:1913-1925
Collibee, Charlene; Furman, Wyndol (2016) The Relationship Context for Sexual Activity and its Associations with Romantic Cognitions among Emerging Adults. Emerg Adulthood 4:71-81
Novak, Jamie; Furman, Wyndol (2016) Partner Violence During Adolescence and Young Adulthood: Individual and Relationship Level Risk Factors. J Youth Adolesc 45:1849-61
Collibee, Charlene; Furman, Wyndol (2015) Quality Counts: Developmental Shifts in Associations Between Romantic Relationship Qualities and Psychosocial Adjustment. Child Dev 86:1639-52
Collibee, Charlene; Furman, Wyndol (2014) Impact of sexual coercion on romantic experiences of adolescents and young adults. Arch Sex Behav 43:1431-41
Furman, Wyndol; Stephenson, J Claire; Rhoades, Galena K (2014) Positive Interactions and Avoidant and Anxious Representations in Relationships with Parents, Friends, and Romantic Partners. J Res Adolesc 24:615-629
Furman, Wyndol; Collibee, Charlene (2014) A matter of timing: developmental theories of romantic involvement and psychosocial adjustment. Dev Psychopathol 26:1149-60
Branstetter, Steven A; Furman, Wyndol (2013) Buffering Effect of Parental Monitoring Knowledge and Parent-Adolescent Relationships on Consequences of Adolescent Substance Use. J Child Fam Stud 22:192-198
Young, Brennan J; Furman, Wyndol; Jones, Meredith C (2012) Changes in adolescents' risk factors following peer sexual coercion: evidence for a feedback loop. Dev Psychopathol 24:559-71

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