ADOLESCENTS ROMANTIC RELATIONSHIPS AND THE STRUCTURE AND QUALITY OF THEIR CLOSE INTERPERSONAL TIES

Several interpersonal theories suggest that adolescents' romantic rela tionships are associated with distinct patterns of social experience. In this study, 1,049 adolescents indicated whether they had a boy/girl friend and the temporal duration of the relationship. They described t he structure of their peer networks and the quality of their relations hips with a parent/adult and best friend. Adolescents with a boy/girlf riend reported larger networks, more opposite-sex friends, and more no nschool friends. Adolescents with longer romantic relationships report ed more social support with the boy/girlfriend than did adolescents wi th short-term romantic relationships. Temporal duration also moderated the salience of the romantic relationship. Those of short duration we re viewed less favorably than friend and parent/adult relationships, w hereas those of longer duration were viewed more favorably. Finally, c ontinuity in perceived quality was evident between romantic and other relationships. Overall, the results support the view that romantic rel ationships are embedded within adolescents' ongoing social experience and show important links to the structure and quality of their relatio nships with parents and with peers.