"Closeness" between mentor and mentee is previously defined as an important indicator of relationship quality in youth mentoring, but whether this is the case in instrumental mentoring for young adults remains unclear. This is an exploratory study examining how instrumental mentoring serves young adults in their instrumental needs and…

Sexual harassment is a common experience among middle and high school students across the United States. Being the target of and even witnessing sexual harassment is associated with a number of negative consequences for adolescents. This study sought to explore early adolescent boys' and girls' reasoning about (a) perpetrating sexual harassment…

In many industrialized countries, the transition into adulthood has become prolonged and complex. The consequence is that the process of identity formation within various life domains is often being delayed. This study applies a qualitative longitudinal research strategy to track the experiences of 28 young Australians as they undergo the process…

Contemporary adolescents rely heavily on technology and media to navigate romantic relationships. In this mixed-methods study, adolescents and young adults (N = 204) detailed their perceptions of how entertainment media and interactive technology influence adolescent romantic relationships. The majority of adolescents and young adults perceived…

Our study was guided by a developmental lens (emerging adulthood) and the theory of symbolic interaction as we attended to the meanings and definitions that contextualize expectations for engaging in hookups while attending college. Using a directed approach to qualitative content analysis, we examined first semester college men's and women's (N =…

Using observational methods on a small sample of committed Mexican American couples (N = 10, ages 15-17, M length of relationship = 26.5 months), we describe and categorize developmental and cultural communication patterns concerning the negotiation of conflict issues. Videotaped dyadic interactions were transcribed and qualitatively coded using…

Although interpersonal respect is considered an important quality in successful romantic relationships, limited attention has been paid to this concept. We examined the meaning of respect in romantic relationships as conceptualized by low-income, sexually active, heterosexually identified, African American adolescents aged 15 to 17 (N = 50).…

Attitudes formed in adolescence create a foundation for family-formation decisions in adulthood. Drawing on qualitative interviews with fifty American adolescents, this article details five relationship-relevant factors that emerge in the teens' discussions of their relationship views. These are personal communication style, divorce acceptance,…

Localized understandings of adolescent romantic relationships are needed to expand our knowledge of the diversity of adolescent romantic experiences and to challenge negative discourses of adolescent heterosexual relationships. This study explored the constructions of intimacy of 20 adolescent men and women in romantic relationships from one…

This study investigated Swedish emerging adults' expectations on future parenthood through interviews with 124 Swedish emerging adults who were not yet parents. Thematic analysis showed that most participants were sure they wanted to become parents, but not right now. First, they wanted a stable financial situation, a romantic relationship, and…

We build on the emerging adulthood literature to examine two forms of relationship instability, reconciliations and sex with an ex; we term these forms of relationship churning. Analyzing recent data on emerging adult daters and cohabitors (n = 792), we find that nearly half report a reconciliation (a breakup followed by reunion) and over half of…

The present study identified emerging adults' self-generated sexual values and sources of sexual values upon entering college and a year later to assess how these values and sources may have changed. Participants included 148 college students (86 women and 62 men) who were 17 to 19 years old at Time 1 (M = 18.1). Generative coding revealed seven…

Erikson stated that healthy identity development during adolescence is a precursor of intimacy in romantic relationships during emerging adulthood. However, from a developmental contextual perspective, there are reasons to question this strict developmental ordering. Using interview and questionnaire data from a longitudinal study on 93…

The current study examines the role of mental illness-related stigma on romantic or sexual relationships and sexual behavior among youth with mental illness (MI), including youths' experiences of stigma, the internalization of these experiences, and the behavior associated with managing stigma within romantic and sexual relationships. We conducted…

Antipathetic relationships and friendships are common during adolescence. One type of antipathetic relationship that has received no empirical attention is one that emerges from a broken friendship. Two studies, a reanalysis of N. A. Card's previously published data (Study 1) and newly collected data (Study 2), investigated this topic through…