Culture Post: Serious Dating Can Create Serious Challenges for Teens

*The following is excerpted from an online article posted on MedicalXpress.

Considering a host of social pressures and stresses that adolescents experience, the addition of a relationship to the equation can have a negative impact, according to a study from BYU professor of family life Adam Rogers.

His study followed 100 adolescent couples daily for three months. He looked at common romantic interactions between couples that could predict their daily mood or psychological well-being. His main finding was that certain interactions, especially conflicts, contributed to significant fluctuations in their daily negative mood.

The main explanation for these negative effects is that adolescents are still developing cognitively and emotionally. Rogers suggested that many adolescents do not have the cognitive skills and resources to competently deal with the challenging aspects of relationships.

“Even the most common relationship challenges, such as having a disagreement with your partner, can be felt very intensely by an adolescent, partly because he or she is still maturing in terms of self-regulation, problem solving and other areas,” Rogers said. “The result is that these kinds of experiences can be very emotionally challenging for teens.”

Rogers then found that when adolescents experienced fluctuations in negative mood, these emotions wore off on their significant other to reinforce the negative emotion in the relationship. Previously, people have believed that this only happens in a marriage, but Rogers’ study suggests otherwise.

Rogers’ findings have been published in the Journal of Youth and Adolescence.

Source: MedicalXpress
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2019-03-dating-teens.html

Find more culture news on HomeWord’s Culture Blog, named in 2016, 2017 and 2018 as one of the top 50 culture blogs on the planet!

Help us reach the next generation of families

Donate
Back to Top

[reposted by] Jim Liebelt

Jim is Senior Writer, Editor and Researcher for HomeWord. Jim has 40 years of experience as a youth and family ministry specialist, having served over the years as a pastor, author, consultant, mentor, trainer, college instructor, and speaker. Jim’s HomeWord culture blog also appears on Crosswalk.com and Religiontoday.com. Jim and his wife Jenny live in Quincy, MA.

  • About HomeWord

    HomeWord helps families succeed by creating Biblical resources that build strong marriages, confident parents, empowered kids and healthy leaders. Founded by Jim Burns, HomeWord seeks to advance the work of God in the world by educating, equipping, and encouraging parents and churches. Learn More »

  • Support Our Mission

    HomeWord is non-profit, donor supported ministry. If you would like to partner with HomeWord in our effort to help more parents and families you can make a donation. Your investment will allow us to expand this ministry by offering more resources to families and churches in need.

  • Contact Information

    • HomeWord
      PO Box 1600
      San Juan Capistrano, CA
      92693

    • Send us an email

    • 800-397-9725
      (M-F: 8:30am-5pm PST)

Close