Introduction To Qualities Of Romantic Relationships In - International ...

2008 NEWSLETTER Number 1 Serial No. 53
Introduction to Qualities of
Romantic Relationships in
Adolescence and Adulthood
Karina Weichold
Department of Developmental Psychology, University of Jena
Jena, Germany
E-mail: karina.weichold@uni-jena.de
and
Bonnie L. Barber
School of Psychology, Murdoch University
Perth, Western Australia, Australia
E-mail: b.barber@murdoch.edu.au
Romantic relationships offer opportunities for some of the most joyful and fulfilling
moments in life, as well as some of the most miserable. Research is growing on both of these
aspects of partnerships, and their roles in development. What is perhaps more neglected is
the consideration of the role of culture in the study of how romantic relationships facilitate
or hinder healthy development. This issue of the newsletter brings together scholars from
all corners of the globe in our search to understand diverse qualities of romantic relationships
in adolescence and adulthood, and how those are linked to development.
We lead off with a North American feature focused on the
developmental contributions of romantic relationships to
key psychosocial tasks in adolescence. The second feature
highlights some of the darker sides of romantic relationships
for young adults in India. The third article underscores
the challenges and opportunities in romantic
relationships for sexual minority youth. The final feature
considers the spousal experiences and meaning of marriage
in Africa. Our two commentaries, from distinguished
scholars in Israel and Germany, expand on these themes,
and suggest important new considerations for future
research. All of the authors highlight the centrality of
romantic bonds to our social experiences, offering insights
into the growing breadth of research on developmentally
crucial features of relationships.
Offering fresh approaches to research in this area are
two “Reports from the Lab.” Articles in this section report
on scholars’ everyday working conditions or collaborations
within a research setting that may be unusual or challenging.
In this case, we have one paper from a research group
in Finland investigating spousal relationships. The data
were collected using a diary method via mobile phones to
capture daily family dynamics. A second report focuses on
the initiation of romantic relationships and the establishment
of committed relationships in American young
adults. Data here were collected through online assessments.
Both papers introduce modern ways of collecting
prospective longitudinal data in the field of exploring
romantic relationships and they summarize advantages
and difficulties experienced by applying such modes of
data collection.
The contributors to the Special Section features,
commentary, and lab stories include scholars who are
international leaders in research focused on romantic
relationships. We are grateful for the contributions of
these scholars who have reminded us of the diversity of
experiences in romantic partnerships.
Adolescent Romantic Relationships:
Beginnings, Endings, and Psychosocial
Challenges
Jennifer Connolly and Caroline McIsaac
Department of Psychology, York University,
Toronto, Canada
E-mail: connolly@yorku.ca
Romantic relationships first develop in the adolescent years
and their emergence forever changes the nature of young
people’s interpersonal and intrapersonal functioning.
Relationships with a romantic partner are fundamentally
different from any other relationship that an adolescent
may have had up to that point because of their potential to
meet sexual needs as well as social and personal ones.
These relationships have also been posited to make important
contributions to the development of intimacy, sexual
identity and autonomy throughout adolescence. Yet it has
only been in recent years that these relationships have
been recognized by developmental psychologists (Collins,
2003) as “dating” was previously viewed as an activity not
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International Society for the Study of Behavioural Development
worthy of serious theoretical or empirical concern. This
state of affairs has changed dramatically in the last decade
or so and there is now a substantial body of theory and
research on adolescent romantic relationships and their
developmental significance.
Our interest in the study of romantic relationships grew
out of a research agenda focused on adolescents’ peer
relationships. Studying adolescents’ peer networks and
their interactions with friends showed that there were
important relationships which were not being fully
accounted for. In particular, there were significant relationships
with other-sex peers, some of whom were boyfriends
or girlfriends, embedded in their social networks which
were not being modeled (Connolly & Johnson, 1996). These
initial findings inspired a compelling curiosity to better
understand these relationships and created a research
agenda broadly focused on their development. Together
with my graduate students, we have been pursuing three
central research themes over the past decade. These topics
can be summarized in the following way: 1) understanding
how and why adolescents’ romantic relationships begin
and end; 2) examining intimacy and autonomy in romantic
relationships, and finally; 3) exploring the developmental
and contextual predictors of precocious entry into romantic
relationships. We have approached this research from a
developmental-contextual perspective in which we understand
romantic relationships as unfolding within a broader
social context made of up peers, family and ecological
systems. Within this approach we are cognizant that
romantic relationships are themselves a context for the
navigation of salient developmental tasks (Connolly &
Goldberg, 1999). In this article, we summarize some of our
findings, focusing on how they advance our understanding
of adolescents’ romantic relationships and also noting areas
for future study.
First, it is important to situate our research geographically
and methodologically. Our research is largely
conducted in the “field” that is, in middle schools and
high schools in the south-central region of Canada. This
is a typically North American context, closer in values
and structures to America than to Europe or other parts
of the world. Canada, and especially Toronto, is very
diverse culturally and a wide range of ethno-cultural
groups are represented in our samples. This diversity has
allowed us to explore facets of romantic relationships
across cultural lines, which we believe is critical to understanding
romantic relationships and the contributing role
of context in their development. Turning to our methods,
we typically use self-report surveys completed by
students in school. Conscious of the limitations associated
with these samples of convenience, we have devised
numerous strategies to maximize students’ participation
in our research, and our samples typically include
upwards of 70 percent of the eligible students (McIsaac,
McKenney, & Connolly, 2007). Our research is most often
collected longitudinally over periods ranging from one
year to over eight years. In addition, we have used observational
methods to study the internal dynamics of
adolescents’ relationships with their romantic partners,
especially in the study of conflict and negotiation. As with
our school-based research, our observational studies are
also collected “in situ”, through visits to adolescents’
homes. These multiple methods allow us to gain a more
nuanced understanding of youth relationships in diverse
settings.
Beginnings of Romantic Relationships
One of our primary concerns has been to understand how
and when romantic relationships begin. This undertaking
is more complex than it might appear at first glance as there
is considerable fluidity in the boundaries that define
adolescents’ romantic relationships. At any one point in
time, roughly half of adolescents report that they are
currently in a romantic relationship. But it would be incorrect
to assume that the other half of adolescents have no
romantic involvements.
Findings from our lab suggest that they are most likely
involved in romantic activities that are part of a continuum
leading from mixed-gender involvements to actual
romantic relationships (Connolly, Craig, Goldberg, &
Pepler, 2004). In a study of 1284 adolescents in grades 5
through 8, we tabulated the kinds of romantic involvements
students reported over the course of a school year.
Our results document three types of romantic activities:
mixed-gender affiliations, dating in groups, and dyadic
romantic relationships. We also found that these romantic
activities were sequentially organized in stages that led
adolescents progressively away from associating only with
same-gender friends to having a boyfriend or girlfriend.
Dating in groups appeared to be a key activity along this
progression because it bridged lower and higher levels of
romantic involvement, functioning as the activity that most
often preceded the formation of a romantic couple as well
as the most frequent romantic activity following the termination
of a relationship. We also found that dating in groups
was more commonly reported than dyadic relationships,
consistent with the emergent and fluid nature of romantic
relationships in adolescence.
The importance of group dating was also highlighted
in a study of 180 high school students whom we followed
from grade 9 to 11 (Connolly, Furman, & Konarski, 2000).
We found that their mixed-gender peer groups comprised
the most proximal social context for forming romantic
relationships. This continuity can be attributed to their
shared base in meeting affiliative needs. As such, within the
North American context in which adolescent peer connections
are encouraged, group dating is the point of intersection
for romantic interests and the world of peers.
Endings of Romantic Relationships
While developmentally important and phenomenologically
salient, romantic relationships tend to be shortlived,
often lasting less than six months to a year (Connolly
& Johnson, 1996). It is almost inevitable then that most
young people will experience a romantic break-up at some
point during their adolescence (Shulman & Kipnis, 2001).
Despite being a normative aspect of romantic experience,
very little is known about these dissolutions or why they
occur.
In our lab we have embarked on some initial investigations
of romantic dissolutions, focusing on mapping
these experiences and their normative functions. In two
studies of young people ranging in age from 11 to 25
(total N = 1357) we have obtained information on their
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2008 NEWSLETTER Number 1 Serial No. 53
Table 1. Romantic Relationship Dissolution Experiences Across
Adolescence and Emerging Adulthood
Age range
Experience with dissolutions 11–13 14–16 17–19 20–25
Had a break-up
No 54% 30% 23% 6%
Yes 46% 70% 77% 94%
Number of break-ups
1–2 65% 71% 56% 38%
3–5 17% 21% 28% 33%
>5 18% 8% 16% 23%
Break-up in past 12 months
Yes 78% 72% 66% 48%
No 22% 28% 34% 52%
Break-up initiator
Self 40% 41% 42% 45%
Mutual 44% 40% 38% 35%
Partner 16% 19% 20% 20%
Note. For 11–13 n = 533, 14–16 n = 409, 17–19 n = 223, 20–25
n = 192.
relationship turnovers over the course of a year, (Connolly
& McIsaac, 2003; 2004). These results, shown in Table 1,
support the view that relationship terminations are
common throughout adolescence. Moreover, the number of
youths who have had a termination increases steadily with
age, as well as the total number of terminations that they
have had. Also varying with age is the likelihood of having
had a recent breakup, with younger adolescents being more
likely to report a breakup in the last 12 months, compared
to late adolescents and emerging adults. This is most
probably due to the increased capacity for older youths to
sustain more enduring relationships which are less vulnerable
to rapid dissolution. Constant across age, adolescents
told us that their relationships more often ended because of
their own or shared dissatisfaction rather than being
rejected by their partner.
Although the retrospective nature of our data do not
allow us to draw firm conclusions about what actually transpired
at the time of the break-up, our findings nonetheless
suggest that adolescents continue to think about their failed
relationships. Studying their dissolution accounts, even
after the event, may provide a window into the psychosocial
needs which were not met in that relationship. From
a developmental perspective, the unmet needs that lead to
break-ups may be very similar to the social needs which
motivate adolescent involvement in relationships in the
first place. One direction that we are pursuing in our
research is to employ prospective data to explore whether
these needs can be framed in terms of adolescents’
struggles with key psychosocial tasks.
Romantic Relationships and Psychosocial
Tasks
Based on our research, as well as that of others, it is our
view that romantic relationships in adolescence provide an
important opportunity for learning about how to connect
with a significant other while simultaneously maintaining
some degree of autonomy in their thoughts, behaviors and
self-perceptions (Connolly & Goldberg, 1999). Several
theorists (Blatt & Blass, 1996; Shulman & Knafo, 1997) have
conceptualized the balance between connectedness and
individuality as a life span challenge of close relationships
and we have found this view helpful in conceptualizing
adolescent romantic relationships. In our view, the ways
in which connectedness and autonomy are expressed
in a romantic relationship emerges progressively, as
adolescents gain experience with romantic partnerships
and also as their relationships deepen emotionally. Initially,
romantic relationships are motivated by a need for connectedness
which is cumulatively expressed through passionate
attraction, affiliative bonding, and emotional intimacy
(Connolly & Goldberg, 1999). These interwoven forms of
connecting with a partner are apparent in adolescents’
concepts of the motivational appeal of romantic relationships.
In a study of 1755 young adolescents, perceptions of
the unique features of romantic relationships were evaluated
with an open-ended response format. Using content
analysis to code their responses, we found a clustering of
connectedness functions which included affiliation, sexuality
and emotional intimacy. Affiliation was the most
commonly reported connectedness feature, a finding which
supports our work on the importance of companionship
and shared activities in romantic development for
adolescents. A multi-level understanding of connectedness
was evident, despite the young age of the participants and
their relative lack of experience with a romantic partner.
Consistent with this, intimacy functions continued to be
fundamental to romantic relationships throughout adolescence.
At the same time there is increasing capacity to actualize
these forms of intimacy with age. Older adolescents,
by virtue of their expanding experiences with romance, are
able to sustain longer-term relationships within which
intimacy can flourish (Connolly & Johnson, 1996; Seiffge-
Krenke, 2003).
In contrast, we know less about the expression of
autonomy with a romantic partner. This may be due to the
traditional empirical focus on the parent-child relationship
as the central context for the resolution of autonomy tasks
and the difficulty of generalizing these findings to the
romantic domain (Collins, Laursen, Mortensen, Leubker, &
Ferreria, 1997). Further complicating matters, autonomy
issues are not always apparent in adolescents’ romantic
relationships because the need to differentiate the self from
the partner only arises when high levels of intimacy
threaten personal boundaries. These issues typically come
to the forefront in the latter stages of romantic development
when age and experience combine to lead to more
committed relationships. Consistent with this developmental
view, our study of the romantic concepts of young
adolescents did not reveal any recognition of the potential
autonomy components of romantic relationships
(Connolly, Craig, Goldberg, & Pepler, 1999). Similarly, in a
study of 230 mid- and late adolescents, we found that
comfort with independent decision-making was associated
with intimacy only in longer-term romantic relationships
(Taradash, Connolly, Pepler, Craig, & Costa, 2001). Girls in
this study, in contrast to the boys, showed more ease with
asserting their own ideas and decisions in their romantic
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relationships, a finding that echoes girls’ more advanced
fluency in dyadic relationships. We have continued to look
at how boys and girls negotiate autonomy in their relationships
with each other in an observational study of conflict
management in romantic couples at age 16 (McIsaac,
Connolly, McKenney, Pepler, & Craig, manuscript under
review). Conflict is an interpersonal situation which
demands self-expression and so is ideally suited to the
study of autonomy processes. In analyzing the dynamics
between boyfriends and girlfriends, we found that couples
who managed conflict successfully showed both a capacity
for the respectful self-expressions of their differences and
an acceptance of the independence of their partners. The
reciprocity was largely dependent on the girl’s actions in
the relationship as her facility with conflict negotiation set
the tone for the autonomous expression of both herself and
her partner. Of particular interest, we also found that girls
who were restrictive in their management of conflict also
influenced their boyfriends, but in a negative direction. A
future direction of our research program is to better understand
gendered styles of interaction and how they may lead
to differential success in the balancing of autonomy with
intimacy.
Early Timing of Romantic Relationships
Our studies of romantic development reveal typical
patterns of romantic activities and romantic relationships
across early, middle and late adolescence. Yet viewed
through a different lens, these findings can reveal patterns
of romantic activity that are atypical. We have been especially
interested in early entry into romantic relationships
because precocity in the heterosexual domain is a risk factor
for depression, school problems, and externalizing behaviors
(Bingham & Crockett, 1996; Neeman, Hubbard, &
Masten, 1995). In our longitudinal study of young
adolescents, we found that having a boyfriend or girlfriend
before the age of 13 was linked to specific peer and family
dynamics (Friedlander, Connolly, Pepler, & Craig, in press).
In particular we found that atypical romantic patterns were
associated with involvement in peer groups with high
levels of dating and delinquent activities, as well as low
supervision in the family. We have also studied how early
adolescent romantic trajectories may be influenced by problematic
peer behaviors. During the middle-school years,
peer harassment expands to opposite-sex targets
(McMaster, Connolly, Pepler, & Craig, 2002) and this may
create non-optimal conditions for emerging romantic
relationships. Our study of middle-school youth found that
early adolescents who bullied their peers were more likely
than non-bullies to report high levels of conflict and
physical aggression with their partner (Connolly, Pepler,
Craig, & Taradash, 2000).
At first glance these studies of young adolescents may
lead to the conclusion that romantic involvement at this age
is harmful. We caution against this interpretation and
suggest that when studying potential risks, one must be
attentive to the level of involvement and the type of
activity. In fact, our staging studies show that casual affiliative
attractions are highly normative for early adolescents
and other researchers have shown that these activities are
linked to positive perceptions of the self (Darling, Dowdy,
Van Horn, & Caldwell, 1999).
Conclusions
Our research on the stages, tasks and timing of romantic
relationships paints a holistic picture of these interactions,
highlighting their developmental underpinnings as well as
their responsiveness to contextual variation. Disconfirming
earlier views that romantic relationships are unknowable
and unimportant, our research suggests that they unfold
systematically and serve multiple psychosocial functions.
This view reinforces the notion that romantic relationships
are a critical social context for preparing youth for successful
relationships in later life.
References
Bingham, C.R., & Crockett, L.J. (1996). Longitudinal adjustment
patterns of boys and girls experiencing early,
middle, and late sexual intercourse. Developmental
Psychology, 32, 647–658.
Blatt, S.J., & Blass, R.B. (1996). Relatedness and selfdefinition:
A dialectic model of personality development.
In G. Noam & K. Fischer (Eds.), Development and
vulnerability in close relationships (pp. 309–338). NJ:
Erlbaum.
Collins, W.A. (2003). More than myth: The developmental
significance of romantic relationships during adolescence.
Journal of Research on Adolescence, 13, 1–24.
Collins, W.A., Laursen, B., Mortensen, N., Luebker, C., &
Ferreria, M. (1997). Conflict processes and transitions in
parent and peer relationships: Implications for
autonomy and regulation. Journal of Adolescent Research,
12, 178–198.
Connolly, J., Craig, W., Goldberg, A., & Pepler, D. (1999).
Conceptions of cross-sex friendships and romantic
relationships in early adolescence. Journal of Youth and
Adolescence, 28, 481–493.
Connolly, J., Craig, W., Goldberg, A., & Pepler, D. (2004).
Mixed-gender groups, dating and romantic relationships
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14, 185–207.
Connolly, J., Furman, W., & Konarski, R. (2000). The role of
peers in the emergence of heterosexual romantic
relationships in adolescence. Child Development, 71,
1395–1408.
Connolly, J., & Goldberg, A. (1999). Romantic relationships
in adolescence: The role of friends and peers in their
emergence and development. In W. Furman, B. Brown,
& C. Feiring (Eds.), The development of romantic relationships
in adolescence (pp. 266–290). NY: Cambridge
University Press.
Connolly, J., & Johnson, A. (1996). Adolescents’ romantic
relationships and the structure and quality of their close
interpersonal ties. Personal Relationships, 3, 185–195.
Connolly, J., & McIsaac, C. (2003). Developmental-contextual
analysis of adolescents’ attributions for romantic
relationship dissolution. In J. Connolly & W. Furman
(Chairs), Understanding romantic relationship break-ups in
adolescence. Paper symposium presented at the biennial
meeting for the Society for Research in Child Development,
Tampa, FL.
Connolly, J., & McIsaac, C. (2004). Romantic dissolutions in
adolescence: Negative affect, attributions, and romantic
confidence. In J. Connolly & C. Feiring (Chairs), Positive
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and negative processes within romantic relationships. Poster
symposium presented at the biennial meeting of the
Society for Research on Adolescence, Baltimore, MD.
Connolly, J., Pepler, D., Craig, W., & Taradash, A. (2000).
Dating experiences of bullies in early adolescence. Child
Maltreatment, 5, 299–310.
Darling, N., Dowdy, B.B., Van Horn, M.L., & Caldwell, L.L.
(1999). Mixed-sex settings and the perception of
competence. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 28,
461–481.
Friedlander, L., Connolly, J., Pepler, D., & Craig, W. (in
press). Biological, familial, and peer influences on
dating in early adolescence. Archives of Sexual Behavior.
McIsaac, C., Connolly, J., McKenney, K.S., Pepler, D., &
Craig, W. (manuscript under review). Conflict negotiation
and autonomy processes in adolescent romantic
relationships: An observational study of interdependency
in boyfriend and girlfriend effects. Journal of
Adolescence.
McIsaac, C., McKenney, K.S., & Connolly, J. (2007). “To
Participate or Not Participate?”: Adolescents’ Response to
Strategies Targeting Increased Participation. Poster
presented at the biennial meeting of the Society for
Research on Child Development, Boston, MA.
McMaster, L., Connolly, J.A., Pepler, D., & Craig, W. (2002).
Peer to peer sexual harassment in early adolescence.
Development and Psychopathology, 10, 25–56.
Neemann, J., Hubbard, J., & Masten, A.S. (1995). The
changing importance of romantic relationship involvement
to competence from late childhood to late adolescence.
Development and Psychopathology, 7, 727–750.
Seiffge-Krenke, I. (2003). Testing theories of romantic
development from adolescence to young adulthood:
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Shulman, S., & Kipnis, O. (2001). Adolescent romantic
relationships: A look from the future. Journal of Adolescence,
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Shulman, S., & Knafo, D. (1997). Balancing closeness and
individuality in adolescent close relationships. International
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Taradash, A., Connolly, J., Pepler, D., Craig, W., & Costa, M.
(2001). The interpersonal context of romantic autonomy
in adolescence. Journal of Adolescence, 24, 365–377.
Romantic Relational Aggression and
Psychosocial Adjustment among
Adolescents
Sunil Saini
Department of Applied Psychology, Guru
Jambheshwar University of Science and Technology,
Hisar, Haryana, India
E-mail: ssaini.psy@gmail.com
The early adolescent years are a critical transitional period
because it is during this time that boys and girls progress
from same-sex to other-sex relationships, including
involvement with romantic partners (Connolly &
Goldberg, 1999). Romantic relationships are an integral
feature of adolescent development. These relationships
typically begin around 14 to 15 years of age, initially as an
extension of involvement in mixed gender peer groups
(Feiring, 1996). The romantic relationship is associated with
both positive mental health such as the provision of social
support, the enhancement of self-esteem, preparation for
adult relationships, and the development of intimacy
(Connolly & Goldberg, 1999) and negative mental health
such as feelings of depression, especially among adolescent
girls (Davila, Steinberg, Kachadourian, Cobb, & Fincham,
2004). Not much literature is available on how romantic
relational aggression and victimization affects psychosocial
functioning in adolescence. Linder, Crick, and Collins
(2002) found that college students who reported using
relational aggression within their romantic relationships
were less trusting of their current or most recent partner,
and more frustrated, jealous, and clingy in their romantic
relationships. Bagner, Storch, and Preston (2007) also found
similar results indicating that romantic relational
aggression was related to poor psychosocial functioning.
Aggression in Romantic Relationships
Aggression in romantic relationship can be broadly defined
across a range of behaviours, including physical assault,
kidnapping, acid throwing, rape and even murder.
However, it is also important to consider the less physical,
but still hurtful, relational aggression in romantic relationships.
Examples include flirting with others to make a
romantic partner jealous, threatening to break up with a
partner if the partner will not comply, or giving a partner
the silent treatment when angry. Media has highlighted
many such cases in the capital of India and other metro
cities. Although research has been conducted on romantic
relational aggression in Western cultures, little research has
examined romantic relational problems in India. Therefore,
the present research is focused on romantic relational
aggression and psychosocial functioning among Indian
youths.
Relational aggression in romantic relationships is of
great concern due to its negative individual and societal
impact. It has been found that adolescents who date,
particularly those who experience stress in their romantic
relationships, report higher levels of depressive symptoms
than their non-dating peers (Davila et al., 2004). Specifically
with regard to romantic relational aggression, evidence
suggests that men and women experience romantic
relational aggression at similar rates and that romantic
relational aggression predicts a negative perception of
relationship quality and depression (Bagner et al, 2007;
Linder et al., 2002; Morales & Cullerton-Sen, 2000). In view
of such findings, it is especially critical to identify relational
aggression in romantic relationships and associated
personal and social risks.
There is a strong relation between romantic relational
aggression and relational victimization. Some of the roots
of these issues may manifest in earlier peer relationships.
Relational aggression toward peers and being the target of
relational aggression in the peer group are associated with
loneliness, depression, and peer rejection (Crick & Grotpeter,
1995). Friendships of relationally aggressive children
have higher levels of exclusivity and jealousy than the
friendships of non-relationally aggressive children (Crick &
Grotpeter, 1995). Further, relationally victimized children
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International Society for the Study of Behavioural Development
report lower levels of friendship quality and satisfaction
than non-relationally victimized children (Grotpeter,
Geiger, Nukulkij, & Crick, 2001). Such early links of
relational aggression to relationship quality highlight the
need for the study of relational aggression in romantic
relationships, particularly as it may be linked to the
psychosocial adjustment areas of social anxiety, loneliness,
depression, and alcohol use.
Romantic Relationships and Psychosocial
Adjustment
Social anxiety means the fear of being negatively evaluated
by others. These evaluative concerns lead to unwanted
anxious feelings, thoughts, and sensations in (real or anticipated)
situations. To limit contact with these unwanted
experiences, socially anxious people exert a great deal of
effort to avoid and control anxiety and the situations that
might induce it (Hayes, Wilson, Gifford, Follette, &
Strosahl, 1996). Socially anxious people are more socially
isolated, less likely to be married or in romantic relationships,
and have unsatisfactory social relationships
(Wittchen, Fuetsch, Sonntag, Muller, & Liebowitz, 2000).
There is minimal work on romantic relational aggression
and social anxiety. In a recent study, Bagner et al. (2007)
found that romantic relational aggression was positively
related with social anxiety in females.
Loneliness is a state of emotional distress arising from a
discrepancy between one’s desired and achieved level of
social interaction (Peplau & Perlman, 1982). It is distressing
particularly in romantic relationships. Previous research has
asked participants whether or not they are lonely, calculated
percentages, and computed correlations with personality or
other demographic variables. Loneliness as a maladjustment
within romantic relationships has been mostly overlooked
in romantic relationship research literature. The
present study examined loneliness as the consequence of
aggression in romantic relationship in Indian youths.
Studying sources of depression in romantic relationships
is of much interest because depression is the most
prevalent problem during adolescence (particularly for
girls) and is associated with romantic dysfunction at later
ages (Whisman, 2001). Symptoms of depression and social
anxiety are common characteristics of adolescence
(Birmaher et al., 1996; La Greca & Lopez, 1998) and may be
risk factors for impairment in adulthood (Aalto-Setaelae,
Marttunen, Tuulio-Henriksson, Poikolainen, & Loennqvist,
2002). Symptoms of depression and social anxiety may also
be precursors to more severe psychopathology, including
major depressive disorder and social anxiety disorder,
which are chronic disorders that often originate in adolescence
and continue into adulthood (Birmaher et al., 1996).
It is likely that relational aggression is related to levels of
depression experiences within relationships.
Studying the impact of romantic relationship aggression
on psychosocial adjustment is very important because
youths may be more vulnerable to negative outcomes due
to their inexperience and lack of close supervision. Studies
have shown that more than 25 % of adolescents are victims
of dating aggression (Wolfe & Feiring, 2000) resulting in
romantic break-ups which in turn, lead to drinking, suicidal
ideation, attempts and completion (Brendt et al., 1993;
Joyner & Udry, 2000; Monroe, Rhode, Seeley, & Lewinsohn,
1999). Peer pressure further facilitates the perpetration of
aggressive acts in romantic relationships. Thus, by understanding
the relationship between aggression in romantic
relationships and adjustment difficulties, more effective
interventions for these individuals can be implemented.
The Present Research
The following three hypotheses guided this study: (i) there
would be a significant gender difference in aggression in
romantic relationship and experience of romantic relational
victimization among youths (ii) romantic relational
aggression would be significantly associated with romantic
relational victimization (iii) romantic relational aggression
and victimization would be positively correlated with
social anxiety, loneliness, depression and alcohol use.
Adolescents from the age group of 16–22 years from
Guru Jambheswar University of Science and Technology,
Hisar were surveyed. Romantic relational aggression was
assessed by using scale developed by Morales, Ruh, and
Werner (2002). Social anxiety was measure by using La
Greca and Lopez (1998). Loneliness was measured by using
Jha’s (1997) loneliness scale. Similarly, depression was
measure by The Beck Depression Inventory Second Edition
developed by Beck, Steer, and Brow (1996). Alcohol
problems were assessed by seven items related with
alcohol-related behaviors and consequences associated
with alcohol use and dependence. Results are summarized
in Table 1 and Table 2.
Table 1. Means and Standard Deviations of Romantic relational aggression, Romantic relational victimization and Social Anxiety, Loneliness,
and Depression
Total sample
Gender
(N = 183) Male (N = 73) Female (110)
Dependent variable Mean (SD) Mean (SD) Mean (SD) t
Romantic Relational Aggression 10.50 (7.1) 12.8 (7.13) 8.90 (6.6) 3.69**
Romantic Relational Victimization 9.24 (7.2) 11.8 (6.68) 7.50 (7.0) 4.11**
Social Anxiety 75.37 (14.6) 76.95 (10.08) 74.32 (16.8) 1.19**
Loneliness 95.48 (14.7) 91.39 (14.7)0 98.19 (14.1) 3.13**
Depression 12.70 (10.9) 15.67 (12.0)0 10.73 (9.0) 3.16**
*p < .05; **p < .01.
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2008 NEWSLETTER Number 1 Serial No. 53
Table 2. Pearson product-moment correlations among Romantic Relational Aggression and Social Anxiety,
Loneliness, and Depression (N = 183)
1 2 3 4 5
1. Romantic Relational Aggression 1.00**
2. Romantic Relational victimization .79** 1.00**
3. Social Anxiety .21** .25** 1.00*
4. Loneliness .25** .16** .16* 1.00**
5. Depression .39** .31** .08* .24** 1.00
*p < .05; **p < .01 (2-tailed).
Findings reveal a significant gender difference in
romantic relational aggression. This is inconsistent with
past research (Bagner et al., 2007; Linder et al., 2002) that
has not found gender differences in romantic relational
aggression. The gender differences indicate that males
report both more relational aggression and victimization.
There are different possible explanations for this. First,
males may have higher self-esteem, and larger egos than
females, and are perhaps therefore more sensitive to provocation
and loss of respect by others (Fischer, Rodreiguez, &
Mosquera, 2001). Further, males get more angry when their
partner does not pay attention to them. This might be due
to cultural differences and developmental issues. For
example, girls in the Indian socio-cultural context, are
“supposed to” be quiet, calm and show more refined
behavior in comparison to males (Saini & Trama, in press).
Therefore, it is possible that socialization practices and
modelling may inhibit the emergence of relational
aggression among girls when compared to the western
cultures studied in previous findings.
My second hypothesis was to examine the association
between romantic relational aggression and romantic
relational victimization. There is a high relation between
romantic relational aggression and victimization, suggesting
that relationships characterized by these behaviours
have some reciprocal aggression. However, it is also
important to note that use of self-report may not accurately
reflect levels of victimization. Males simply may be more
likely than females to report being victims of aggression,
including romantic relational aggression. Therefore, it is
suggested to use other methods such as having both
partners in the relationship report to confirm this result.
The final aim of the study was to examine correlations
between romantic relational aggression, victimization, and
psychosocial functioning. The findings show that romantic
relational aggression was significantly and positively
related to social anxiety, loneliness and depressive
symptoms. Individuals who reported using romantic
relational aggression reported being more socially anxious,
lonely and depressive. Results are consistent with previous
findings on romantic relational aggression and depressive
symptoms (Davila et al., 2004; Kashdan, Jeffrey, Volkmann,
Breen, & Han, 2007). La Greca and Harrison (2005) also
found that negative interactions with a best friend (e.g.
conflict, exclusion) predicted adolescents’ depressive
symptoms, even after controlling for other aspects of social
functioning (rejection, victimization).
Individuals who reported being victimized in romantic
relationship were similarly more socially anxious, lonely,
and depressed. Results are consistent with previous
findings (Graham, & Juvonen, 1998; Linder et al., 2002).
Graham and Juvonen (1998) found that peer victimization
in adolescents was associated with internal distress, including
feelings of loneliness, social anxiety, and low self-worth.
Both overt and relational victimization have been related to
adolescents’ reports of depression, loneliness, and low selfesteem
(Prinstein, Boergers, & Vernberg, 2001). Prospero
(2007) in a study of mental health symptoms of partner
violence also found significant relationships between
partner violence victimization and anxiety, depression,
hostility and somatization.
Conclusion
In sum, the associations between romantic relational
aggression, victimization and psychosocial functioning are
consistent with previous findings, i.e. higher levels of
romantic relational aggression and victimization are
associated with maladjustment and poor psychosocial
functioning. These relationships are independent of gender
and play an important role in development of social
anxiety, loneliness and depressive symptoms. No association
was found between romantic relational aggression
and alcohol use. Only ten boys and two girls reported
alcohol use. It might be due to the participants’ socioeconomic
background.
Limitations of the study should also be noted. First,
the participants were university students in India,
limiting generalizability and therefore conclusions cannot
be made about romantic relational aggression in other
populations. Second, there was a big gender difference in
the sample. Third, the present findings yielded evidence
of concurrent associations between romantic relational
aggression and victimization and depressive symptoms,
but they are unable to allow us to infer which, if either,
preceded the other. Fourth, students did not report any
alcohol use. It might be that they have underreported
these behaviors.
Despite these limitations, the results of the present
findings have several practical and clinical implications.
Most importantly, the present findings have important
implications in school/college/university setting where
such relationships are very common and health care
providers can be aware of risk factors involved with
romantic relational aggression and victimization so that
students at risk could be identified and necessary services
could be provided. Additionally these findings demonstrate
that knowing about an individual’s use of relational
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International Society for the Study of Behavioural Development
aggression against one’s romantic partner is also an indicator
of victimization in the relationship and his/her
psychosocial functioning.
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2008 NEWSLETTER Number 1 Serial No. 53
Same-Sex Romantic Relationships in
Adolescence and Adulthood
Lisa M. Diamond
Department of Psychology, University of Utah
Salt Lake City, Utah, USA
E-mail: diamond@psych.utah.edu
The 1983 publication of Blumstein and Schwartz’s American
Couples marked a turning point in research on same-sex
relationships. During the 10 years prior to the publication
of this volume, which reported the most detailed and
thoroughgoing comparisons to date between heterosexual
and same-sex couples, fewer than 50 books, chapters, or
articles in the psychological literature had focused specifically
on same-sex couples. In the 10 years after the book’s
publication, the number of publications increased 5-fold,
and nearly doubled again during the next 10 years. These
are welcome changes: Rigorous investigations of same-sex
romantic relationships from adolescence to adulthood
make a number of important contributions to relationship
research more generally.
First, such investigations diversify our fundamental
knowledge base about romantic relationships. Historically,
most academic scholarship on romantic relationships has
focused exclusively on heterosexual couples. Hence,
comparing the relationship processes and experiences of
same-sex and heterosexual couples allows researchers to
explore a broader range of process-oriented theories about
romantic relationship functioning and the factors that
promote relationship stability and satisfaction across
different contexts and within different populations. Second,
examining same-sex relationships allows for more complex
investigations of the role of gender in relationship functioning.
Most romantic relationship research takes for granted
that every romantic couple includes one male and one
female. Yet by directly comparing male-female couples to
female-female and male-male couples, researchers can
begin to disentangle how different combinations of genderlinked
attitudes, skills, and expectations influence relationship
functioning. Finally, investigating same-sex romantic
relationships reveals critically important information about
sexual-minority (i.e., non-heterosexual) individuals and the
ways in which their social and developmental experiences
are unique.
The Social Context of Same-Sex Romantic
Relationships
Typically, same-sex romantic relationships are described as
lesbian/gay/bisexual relationships, but this is not entirely
accurate. Not all individuals involved in same-sex relationships
consider themselves lesbian, gay, or bisexual, and
furthermore, openly-identified lesbian/gay/bisexual individuals
often have histories of both same-sex and other-sex
relationships. Hence it is important not to presume that
identity labels and relationship experiences (past, present,
or future) correspond. This is particularly true across
different cultural environments. Presently in the United
States, there are large and visible lesbian-gay-bisexual
communities in many large urban centers, where individuals
pursuing same-sex relationships can receive social
support and validation. Yet this is not uniformly true crossculturally.
Hence, researchers interested in pursuing international
investigations of same-sex romantic relationships
must take particular care not to presume that participants
in such relationships will openly claim lesbian-gaybisexual
identities.
My own longitudinal research on sexual identity, for
example, has found surprisingly high variability in sexual
identification and patterns of sexual relationships in young
women over time. In 1995 I began interviewing 89 lesbian,
bisexual, “questioning,” and “unlabeled” women about
their attractions, identities, and behaviors, and have reinterviewed
these women every two years since then, with
a retention rate of approximately 90 % (Diamond, 1998;
2000b; 2003; 2005; 2008; in press). Since the beginning of the
study, two thirds of the participants have changed their
identity labels, and the majority have histories of romantic
or sexual relationships that flatly contradict their current
identity labels (i.e., lesbian-identified women getting
involved with men, heterosexually-identified women
getting involved with women). Hence, an important challenge
for research in this area is to adopt broad strategies
of sample recuitment and data collection that capture the
full range of individuals’ same-sex and other-sex experiences—and
their psychosocial implications—regardless of
how individuals personally conceptualize and label their
sexuality.
In growing acknowledgment of these complexities,
researchers increasingly use the term sexual minorities to
refer to all men and women with same-sex attractions and/
or relationships, either currently or in the past. This term
acknowledges the fact that regardless of one’s identity
label, same-sex attractions and relationships—in both the
U.S. and around the globe—place individuals firmly outside
conventional societal norms.
This emphasis on minority status is relevant and
important because although tolerance and acceptance of
same-sex sexuality have been gradually increasing (Loftus,
2001), considerable prejudice and sometimes outright
condemnation of same-sex sexuality continues to exist. This
creates a range of unique social and psychological challenges
for same-sex couples, such as the threat of physical
violence (i.e., Brenner, 1995), disapproval or denial of one’s
relationship from either partner’s family-of-origin (Caron
& Ulin, 1997; LaSala, 2000; Oswald, 2002; Patterson, 2000),
and also low-level stressors such as difficulty making hotel
room reservations (Jones, 1996), receiving poor service and
rude treatment during routine shopping (Walters &
Curran, 1996), or uncertainty about bringing one’s partner
to family functions (Caron & Ulin, 1997; Oswald, 2002).
Of course, such factors are likely to vary dramatically
as a function of different cultures’ attitudes toward samesex
sexuality. Given that the bulk of research on same-sex
couples is conducted in the United States, it is important to
keep in mind that, among Western nations, Americans are
particularly conservative in this regard. Widmer, Treas, and
Newcomb’s (1998) analysis of 24 industrialized countries
participating in the International Social Survey Program
found that 70% of Americans believe that homosexual sex
is “always wrong,” compared with 39% of Canadians, 58%
of British, 45% of Spaniards, and 42% of West Germans. The
most conservative attitudes were found in Northern
Ireland (80% reporting “always wrong”), Hungary (83%)
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International Society for the Study of Behavioural Development
and the Philippines (84%), whereas the most accepting attitudes
were found in the Netherlands (19%). Such variation
must be taken into account when drawing inferences about
the relevance of social stigma for same-sex couples across
diverse cultural contexts. It also bears noting that no
research has systematically tested whether same-sex
couples living in more tolerant communities, cultures, or
nations have substantially different relationship dynamics
or outcomes than those living in more stigmatizing
environments. This is an important area for future research.
The Role of Gender
Gender differences in interpersonal attitudes, cognitions,
and behaviors, and their implications for couple functioning,
have long been topics of vigorous research and debate,
and studies of same-sex couples have provided unique
opportunities to examine how broadly gender-related
effects operate. One of the most common research questions
is whether sexual-minority individuals are “genderinverted”
in their interpersonal functioning, such that gay
men resemble heterosexual women and lesbians resemble
heterosexual men. Research findings suggest that when it
comes to relationship behavior, this is not the case; rather,
studies commonly find that combining two men or two
women in a couple relationship actually tends to magnify
gender-specific patterns.
For example, consistent with the notion that women are
socialized to develop greater interest in interpersonal
intimacy and to be more “relationally-focused,” studies
have detected a tendency for lesbian couples to report
greater intimacy with their partners, assessed by selfreported
factors such as shared time together and the
degree to which partners maintained a “couple” identity
(Diamond, 1998), as well as heightened levels of cohesion,
adaptability, and satisfaction (Zacks, Green, & Marrow,
1988). Yet interestingly lesbian couples have not been found
to show greater relationship stability than either gay male
or heterosexual couples. Rather, studies (such as Kurdek,
1998) suggest that having barriers to dissolving a relationship
is more important for keeping it together than having a
“double-dose” of female-typed relationship skills and
maintenance strategies.
Another topic of interest with regard to gender magnification
in same-sex couples concerns power and equality
in domains ranging from decision-making to influence
strategies, household labor, and problem solving. Although
stereotypes have historically presumed that same-sex
couples implicitly designate one partner to take the classically
“female” role and one partner to take the “male” role
in these domains, research does not bear out this view.
Rather, gay and lesbian couples place a high value on
equity in their relationships, and lesbians in particular
report particular success in achieving equitable arrangements
(Peplau & Cochran, 1980, September). Strategies for
achieving equity follow a number of different patterns.
With respect to household responsibilities, research indicates
that same-sex couples develop largely idiosyncratic
arrangements, allowing their respective interests and
desires to shape daily practice (Huston & Schwartz, 2002).
Accordingly, it is not uncommon for same-sex partners to
mix and match female-typed and male-typed tasks and
roles (i.e., Amy handles auto maintenance and most of the
cooking, while Deb takes care of social arrangements and
financial planning). This is not to suggest, of course, that
same-sex couples are uniformly successful in avoiding
power differentials. For example, research has found that
among both gay male and lesbian couples, income discrepancies
tend to be associated with power differentials
(Caldwell & Peplau, 1984; Harry, 1984; Harry & DeVall,
1978; Reilly & Lynch, 1990), more so for for gay men than
for women (Blumstein & Schwartz, 1983).
Some of the most interesting directions for future
research concern gender-related patterns of conflict resolution.
Given the increasing evidence that (1) gender-related
conflict dynamics have clear-cut implications for both
mental and physical health, and that (2) these health effects
are themselves differentiated by gender, one intriguing
new direction for future research involves moving beyond
the global self-report measures that have characterized
previous research on this topic and collecting coordinated
physiological and observational data on conflict resolution
in same-sex couples. This is a direction my own laboratory
is currently pursuing. Specifically, following a methodology
that has long been used with married heterosexual
couples, we are bringing same-sex couples into our
psychophysiological laboratory and videotaping them as
they discuss a common topic of disagreement. Meanwhile,
we are measuring each partner’s cardiovascular and
endocrinological reactivity to the conflict discussion.
Previous research has suggested that the classic “female
demand, male withdrawal” pattern is particularly aversive
to both men and women (but especially women) and is
associated with detrimental patterns of high and sustained
physiological reactivity. But will same-sex couples show
the same pattern? Is a “double dose” of withdrawal as bad
for female-female couples as for male-female couples, or is
withdrawal less aversive for women when it comes from
another woman? By directly comparing male-male, femalefemale,
and male-female couples’ conflict patterns and
their physiological reactivity, we hope to introduce a new
level of specificity into the traditional investigations of
gender-related dynamics in same-sex couples, and to
explore their important implications for physical health.
Special Issues for Adolescents
It took some time for researchers studying sexual-minority
youths to devote significant attention to their romantic
relationships. Up until 10–15 years ago the vast majority of
extant research on sexual-minority youths focused on their
sexual practices, identity development, stigmatization/
victimization, and suicidality. Although these are important
issues deserving of attention, researchers generally
overlooked the more mundane features of adolescent life,
such as routine relationship formation, maintenance, and
dissolution.
This neglect hampered our understanding of the
normative socio-emotional developmental trajectories of
sexual-minority youths. Of the multiple transitions that
take place during the adolescent and young adult years,
those involving interpersonal relationships are among the
most salient and important. Adolescents undergo notable
increases in their desires and capacities for emotional
intimacy with peers, and these changes can profoundly
reshape their close relationships and the sense of self they
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2008 NEWSLETTER Number 1 Serial No. 53
derive from these relationships. These transformations
might be particularly meaningful for sexual-minority
youths, given that same-sex sexuality is a fundamentally
interpersonal as well as intrapsychic phenomenon.
Because of their stigmatized minority status, sexualminority
youths sometimes have to settle for partners and
relationships they consider less than ideal. Others adapt to
these hurdles by seeking out a diverse variety of sexual and
affectionate same-sex bonds, many of which violate
traditional conventional definitions of friendship and
romance (Diamond, 2000a). It has been difficult to systematically
chart and interpret such diverse relationship
patterns because research on adolescent relationships has
traditionally relied on vague, theoretically impoverished
distinctions between different types of intimate relationships
(Diamond, Savin-Williams, & Dubé, 1999). Rough
lines are drawn between platonic and romantic relationships,
and between casual and serious romances, but rarely
do researchers probe the full range of affectional and sexual
ties that adolescents from diverse backgrounds might
consider.
For example, one pattern of same-sex romantic
intimacy that has been observed primarily among young
women is passionate friendships (Diamond, 2000a). These
bonds typically contain the affective and behavioral
features of romantic relationships—such as emotional
passion, possessiveness, exclusivity, and frequent physical
affection—without explicit sexual desire or activity
(although in some cases, the bonds may eventually become
physically intimate). Thus, passionate friendships may
provide sexual-minority youths with all of the benefits of a
same-sex romantic relationship (most notably, social
support and emotional intimacy) while avoiding many of
the risks and complications. Notably, a similar degree of
fluidity and ambiguity between friendships and romantic
relationships is also observed among adult sexual-minority
women (Nardi & Sherrod, 1994; Rose, Zand, & Cimi, 1993;
Weinstock, 1997).
Thus, many sexual-minority youths’ most extensive
experience with same-sex intimacy will occur in relationships
that look nothing like typical dating or romantic
relationships. These diverse relationship types might be
conceptualized as different solutions to the problems all
youths—but especially sexual minority youths—face in
balancing their needs and desires for sexual and affectional
intimacy with the risks posed by different types of intimate
relationships, as well as the constraints they face in finding
the partners and relationships they want.
It is important to note, however, that these constraints
take a discernible toll on sexual-minority youths’ psychological
well-being. In one recent study comparing the
relationship experiences and expectations of heterosexual
and sexual-minority youths, my research team used quantitative
surveys and qualitative interviews to investigate
the mental health implications of sexual-minority and
heterosexual youths’ experiences and expectations regarding
friendships and romantic relationships (Diamond &
Lucas, 2004). Consistent with prior research, we found that
sexual-minority youths had higher levels of anxiety, loneliness,
depression, and physical symptomology than their
heterosexual counterparts. Yet importantly, these effects
did not appear to be attributable to sexual-minority youths’
overall perceptions of stress and stigmatization, as is
commonly assumed. Rather, they were mediated by differences
between heterosexual and sexual-minority youths’
romantic relationship expectations. Specifically, sexualminority
youths reported significantly greater fears that
they would never be able to find “the kind of romantic
relationship I want” in the future, even though they had
social networks of comparable size and rates of romantic
involvement that were similar to their heterosexual counterparts
(this particular sample of sexual-minority youths
were fairly “out” and active in the local lesbian-gaybisexual
community, which increased their opportunities
for same-sex romance). Mediational analyses demonstrated
that these relationship fears were responsible for these
youths’ disproportionately low well-being. Such findings
provide a stark demonstration of the importance of
intimate relationship experiences for adolescent mental
health.
Considerations for Future Research
In considering the history and future of psychological
research on sexual-minority relationships, the underlying
cultural assumptions and unavoidable political dimensions
that shape the asking and answering of questions about
same-sex relationships warrant continual scrutiny. In an
influential critique of early research on lesbian and gay
individuals, Kitzinger (1987) pointed out that the longstanding
emphasis on documenting the lack of significant
mental health differences between gay/lesbian and heterosexual
individuals might have appeared to represent the
triumph of scientific objectivity over social prejudice, but in
fact functioned to reinforce the social disenfranchisement of
sexual-minority individuals by implicitly predicating their
social acceptability on patterns of thought, feeling, and
behavior that were judged “normal” and “healthy” by
mainstream society. Her analysis demonstrates the importance
of continually monitoring our own explicit and
implicit theories of sexuality and relationships in order to
appropriately represent how these phenomena develop,
unfold, and interact within the life courses of diverse
sexual-minority individuals.
These aims, of course, introduce notable challenges for
researchers. As noted above, perhaps chief among these is
the issue of sampling appropriately diverse populations of
sexual minorities. In my own work, I have continually
struggled to reach out to “hidden pockets” within the
sexual-minority population, striving to include as broad a
range of men and women as possible. Given the stigmatization
faced by sexual minorities, this continues to be an
uphill battle. One hopeful advance is the rise of the internet,
which provides a means for reaching individuals who
remain highly secretive about their same-sex sexuality, and
who might never attend a Pride parade, read an advertisement
in a lesbian-gay-bisexual publication, or see a flyer
posted at a lesbian-gay-bisexual community center.
Researchers have yet to comprehensively assess how
internet samples resemble and differ from samples
collected in conventional ways, and clearly such analyses
are critically important if we are to make appropriate
generalizations from the findings of future research.
Another important obstacle, particularly for developmentally-oriented
research on same-sex relationships
among adolescents, is the prevailing conservativism of
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International Society for the Study of Behavioural Development
contemporary American culture regarding adolescent
sexuality. Even in just the past 10 years, researchers have
noted a rising tide of opposition to studies seeking to ask
adolescents direct questions about their sexual and
romantic feelings and experiences, despite the fact that the
lack of a thoroughgoing understanding of youths’ experiences
will clearly hamper our efforts to provide them with
appropriate psychological and informational resources to
make healthy decisions about their relationships. This
increasing conservativism is particularly pernicious when
it comes to same-sex sexuality. Researchers such as myself
have had to become active advocates for the intellectual
and social value of our research, arming ourselves with the
wealth of evidence showing that adolescents are, in fact,
well-served by the collection and dissemination of more and
better data about the diversity of their intimate experiences
and their developmental implications.
Despite these challenges, I remain optimistic. The scope
of research on same-sex relationships over the lifespan has
broadened and diversified to a degree that I could scarcely
have imagined when I first began studying this topic, and
no doubt these changes will continue to produce a deeper
understanding of intimate relationships in the context of
same-sex sexuality and a deeper understanding of same-sex
sexuality in the context of intimate relationships.
References
Blumstein, P., & Schwartz, P. (1983). American couples:
Money, work, sex. New York: Morrow.
Brenner, C. (1995). Eight bullets: One woman’s story of surviving
anti-gay violence. Ithaca, NY: Firebrand Books.
Caldwell, M.A., & Peplau, L.A. (1984). The balance of
power in lesbian relationships. Sex Roles, 10, 587–599.
Caron, S.L., & Ulin, M. (1997). Closeting and the quality of
lesbian relationships. Families in Society, 78, 413–419.
Diamond, L.M. (1998). Development of sexual orientation
among adolescent and young adult women. Developmental
Psychology, 34, 1085–1095.
Diamond, L. M. (2000a). Passionate friendships among
adolescent sexual-minority women. Journal of Research
on Adolescence, 10, 191–209.
Diamond, L.M. (2000b). Sexual identity, attractions, and
behavior among young sexual-minority women over a
two-year period. Developmental Psychology, 36, 241–250.
Diamond, L.M. (2003). Was it a phase? Young women’s
relinquishment of lesbian/bisexual identities over a 5-
year period. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology,
84, 352–364.
Diamond, L.M. (2005). A new view of lesbian subtypes:
Stable vs. fluid identity trajectories over an 8-year
period. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 29, 119–128.
Diamond, L.M. (2008). Sexual fluidity: Understanding
women’s love and desire. Cambridge, MA: Harvard
University Press.
Diamond, L.M. (in press). Female bisexuality from adolescence
to adulthood: Results from a 10 year longitudinal
study. Developmental Psychology.
Diamond, L.M., & Lucas, S. (2004). Sexual-minority and
heterosexual youths’ peer and family relationships:
Experiences, expectations, and implications for wellbeing.
Journal of Research on Adolescence, 14, 313–340.
Diamond, L.M., Savin-Williams, R.C., & Dubé, E.M. (1999).
Sex, dating, passionate friendships, and romance:
Intimate peer relations among lesbian, gay, and
bisexual adolescents. In W. Furman & B. B. Brown
(Eds.), Development of romantic relationships in adolescence
(pp. 175–210): Cambridge University Press.
Harry, J. (1984). Gay couples. New York: Praeger.
Harry, J., & DeVall, W.B. (1978). The social organization of gay
males. New York: Praeger.
Huston, M., & Schwartz, P. (2002). Gendered dynamics in
the romantic relationships of lesbians and gay men. In
A. E. Hunter (Ed.), Readings in the psychology of gender:
Exploring our differences and commonalities (pp. 167–178).
Needham Heights, MA: Allyn & Bacon.
Jones, D.A. (1996). Discrimination against same-sex couples
in hotel reservation policies. Journal of Homosexuality,
31, 153–159.
Kitzinger, C. (1987). The social construction of lesbianism.
London: Sage.
Kurdek, L.A. (1998). Relationship outcomes and their
predictors: Longitudinal evidence from heterosexual
married, gay cohabiting, and lesbian cohabiting
couples. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 60, 553–568.
LaSala, M.C. (2000). Gay male couples: The importance of
coming out and being out to parents. Journal of Homosexuality,
39, 47–71.
Loftus, J. (2001). America’s liberalization in attitudes
toward homosexuality. American Sociological Review, 66,
762–782.
Nardi, P.M., & Sherrod, D. (1994). Friendship in the lives of
gay men and lesbians. Journal of Social and Personal
Relationships, 11, 185–199.
Oswald, R.F. (2002). Inclusion and belonging in the family
rituals of gay and lesbian people. Journal of Family
Psychology, 16, 428–436.
Patterson, C. J. (2000). Family relationships of lesbians and
gay men. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 62,
1052–1069.
Peplau, L.A., & Cochran, S.D. (1980, September). Sex differences
in values concerning love relationships. Paper
presented at the American Psychological Association,
Montreal, Canada.
Reilly, M.E., & Lynch, J.M. (1990). Power-sharing in lesbian
partnerships. Journal of Homosexuality, 19, 1–30.
Rose, S., Zand, D., & Cimi, M.A. (1993). Lesbian courtship
scripts. In E.D. Rothblum & K.A. Brehony (Eds.), Boston
marriages (pp. 70–85). Amherst: University of Massachusetts
Press.
Walters, A.S., & Curran, M.C. (1996). “Excuse me, sir? May
I help you and your boyfriend?”: Salespersons’ differential
treatment of homosexual and straight customers.
Journal of Homosexuality, 31, 135–152.
Weinstock, J.S. (1997). Lesbian friendships: Simply an alternative
or is this a revolution? In J.S. Weinstock (Chair),
Lesbian friendships and social change. Symposium
conducted at the annual meetings of the Association for
Women in Psychology, Pittsburgh, PA.
Widmer, E.D., Treas, J., & Newcomb, R. (1998). Attitudes
toward nonmarital sex in 24 countries. Journal of Sex
Research, 35, 349–358.
Zacks, E., Green, R.-J., & Marrow, J. (1988). Comparing
lesbian and heterosexual couples on the Circumplex
Model: An initial investigation. Family Process, 27,
471–484.
12

2008 NEWSLETTER Number 1 Serial No. 53
Coping Strategies of Marital
Relationships in Bamenda Cameroon
Gladys Ngoran
Human Development Resource Centre
Bamenda Cameroon
E-mail: gladngov@yahoo.com or
ngopmbiy@yahoo.com
Meaning of Marriage in Africa
Sub-Saharan Africans hold marriage in high esteem as a
fundamental union that gives rise to a family which is the
basic unit of society and the springboard of life. With this
in mind, families endeavour to inculcate the expectation of
marriage in their children at an early age. As the children
grow up, they know that they will marry in future.
Anything a child does is appreciated in relation to
marriage.
In grassland Cameroon, as in most parts of sub-Saharan
Africa, it is common to hear parents say; “That was well
done son/daughter. Your wife/husband will always be
happy if you can keep it up.” “Are you sure your husband
will eat this type of poorly prepared food? Always take
time to cook well.” “No woman will like a coward for a
husband. Be a man.”
Preparing children for marriage is one of a constellation
of cultural values which are jealously guarded. These
values as Nsamenang (1992) explains are established in the
personal preferences and inner regulations of individuals.
These values are passes down through the generations thus
using the family as a medium of continuity of the lineage
and preservation of values. When children come of age or
become mature, parents expect them to be settled in
marriage.
Marriage is seen as a legitimate way to procreate and
have socially integrated children (Nsamenang, 2000). These
children are considered as insurance for parents in their old
age. The children will cater for the elders and give them the
necessary comfort in their later lives.
Marriages are also a contract between the families of
the two spouses thus creating a relationship that Filani
(1984) describes as extensive, with social network ramifications.
Choosing a marriage partner takes on varied
forms, with parents playing a vital role. In some communities
within Africa, parents indicate the wish to have a wife
or husband for their children from a particular family
background (Mbiti, 1969). Serious investigation is thus
made into the family background of the chosen partner
and into his/her way of life before accepting that person
for their child.
One key factor in African marriages is that marriage
between close relations is not allowed; in most of grassland
Cameroon it is believed that if close relatives marry
they could die as punishment for violating this traditional
rule. Parents in particular and society in general therefore
strive to prevent marriages between close relatives,
especially because the living dead (ancestors) do not
feel happy about such relationships given that incest is
taboo.
Investigating Problems and Coping
Strategies in Cameroon Couples
Based on this complex and cherished traditional background
of African marriage, we designed the current study
to investigate coping strategies in marital relationships. The
specific objectives were to identify sources of marital difficulties
and to determine what sustains marriage or keeps
spouses together despite these problems. Above all, this
research work was meant to provide an insight into marital
life as background information for instituting marital and
family counselling.
We conducted our study in Bamenda, a town in the
North West Province (in an urban setting) in the English
speaking part of Cameroon. This town has a population of
329600 inhabitants (MINPAT, 2000) coming from diverse
ethnic origins of Cameroon. The research was carried out
using a questionnaire survey of 31 items adapted from
those of Filani (1984), Bakare (1970) and Kersten (1990),
enriched by additional relevant literature. It comprised a
demographic section and three sub scales, which were
designed to measure personal data, communication and
attitude to marital life, marital cooperation and disaffection
and finally, marital adjustments. The construct, face and
content validity of this instrument were ascertained with
the assistance of an expert psychologist.
Data was collected from a literate sample of 160 volunteers
(34.4% male and 65.6% female) drawn from Christian
groups and social groups in the town of Bamenda. The age
range of this sample was 61 years with the youngest spouse
being 21years and the oldest 82 years old. Their mean age
was 41 years while their mean duration in the same marital
relationship was 21 years. Of the 160 respondents, 86.2% of
them are still in their marital relationship, 6.8% are widows
and 5.4% are separated, while 1.6% are divorced.
The data underscored the existence of marital
problems among couples. The most frequently reported
problems revolved first on disagreement over the use of
finances (58.8%). Infidelity (involvement in extra marital
sexual relationship) was second with a percentage rating
of 34.34% followed closely by the intrusion of in-laws
rated at 32.2%. Despite these marital problems, couples
persisted in the union to uphold the traditional precepts
that see marriage as a lifelong contract. Tradition therefore
rejects divorce.
Respondents also acknowledged that they seldom
discussed family issues and would hardly listen to each
other’s point of view, except when it concerned children.
They perceived children as a binding force in marriage and
the main reason for persistence in marital unions and the
continuation of interaction between separated or divorced
partners.
Given the incidence of problems of finance, infidelity,
intrusion of in-laws and poor communication reported in
this study, we can conclude that happiness was limited
amongst respondents. Partners’ disagreement over
finances revealed a spirit of greed and selfishness amongst
them. This could lead to the disintegration of the home.
These problems were probably exacerbated by
traditional Cameroonian belief that the man is the head of
the family and has control over everything within his
family, including the wife’s money. Infidelity may have
arisen in part because most partners are not true to
13

International Society for the Study of Behavioural Development
themselves when it concerns their sexual life. Sex is
considered a taboo topic for discussion in most of our
communities (Nsamenang, 2004) yet there are problems
among spouses that make their sex lives unenjoyable
thereby leading to extramarital relationships. If partners
could feel free towards each other and express their
feelings frankly, a solution could be sought. In this way,
infidelity could be checked thus letting out ill feeling and
distress that comes with it. Tradition holds that marriage
is polygamous, but under the influence of Christianity
many people commit to monogamous marriage and then
indulge in secret extramarital relationships. Society sometimes
looks at men in monogamous relationships as being
weak, so some men indulge in extra marital relationships
to prove their manhood and wealth. When people who
live together for life become a nuisance to one another,
their marriage becomes permeated by ill feeling and frustration.
In Cameroon, as in the rest of sub-Saharan Africa,
in-laws can help a young couple to establish a loving
marriage or break it down by initiating conflicts based on
jealousy, greed, or other negative traits.. As tradition
demands, parents-in-law should accept their children-inlaw
as members of their family. This will enable the
family union to remain amicable and keep the extended
family strong.
Our results also revealed that communication was poor,
primarily because spouses did not listen to each other.
Communication without listening could be viewed as a
waste of time and expression of the mind. The above
explanation implies that there is good and bad communication
as Wright (1981) says it. Good communication brings
joy and bad communication reduces happiness. When
communication is poor, cooperation within the family will
be lacking. Cooperation shows a spirit of joint effort with
common goals to be achieved. If we could go by the adage
“united we stand, divided we fall” and the marriage principle
of one plus one being one, then we can see that
cooperation is a great component of marriage and family
life. When marital partners are ignorant or neglect the
importance of functioning as one, they will likely not have
time for in-depth family discussion.
African Marriage—A Contract Between
Spousal Families
Respondents in this study cope with marital life and the
above discussed problems because of their respect for and
attachment to traditional norms and the pro-natalist value
of marriage as a lifelong union. During marriage solemnisation
over a calabash of palm wine in the Northwest
Province of Cameroon, the young couple are made to
understand that marriage is permanent before they share a
cup of palm wine. This sharing thus opens the way for all
other family members present to drink the wine, after
emphasising on the permanent nature of the relationship
being created by that rite.
Upholding these traditional precepts is imperative
because it is a deep-seated indigenous norm upon which
the stability of the society and the pride and dignity of its
members depend. By respecting these traditional beliefs
and upholding the sanctity of marriage, one’s personality
and self-esteem are affirmed. Maintaining a marital
relationship is seen as a developmental marker of maturity,
which is indeed fulfilled with the birth and proper care of
one’s children. Those who fail to fulfill their duties after
marriage, or do not marry, bring shame and disgrace to
themselves and their families. Society looks down on them
and many people do not allow their children to marry into
such families because of fears of contamination. When the
marriage of children is threatened by problems of any kind,
parents get in forcibly to bring peace because when those
marriages are shaken it is an indication that their role in
child upbringing and transmission of traditional cultural
values was not efficiently done, indicating a failure on their
part.
Persistence in marriage in spite of problems signifies
people’s ability to endure pain and hardship in order to
uphold the sanctity of marriage, which is seen as the only
acceptable cultural institution for child bearing and child
rearing. By showing an enduring spirit, people further
reveal that they are attached to the principle of moderation
and functioning within one’s circumstances.
The High Value of Children
Children are seen as the major reason for the institution of
marriage. Thus, partners bear all the troubles and difficulties
of marriage for the sake of the children born into that
relationship. It is believed that children brought up in the
absence of one parent as a consequence of divorce will be
maladjusted in one way or another. Children are the fruits
of marriage, and when they cannot be brought up jointly
because of marital problems, the affected parents become a
Figure 1. Spousal Union Figure 2. The value of children
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2008 NEWSLETTER Number 1 Serial No. 53
Figure 3.
disgrace to society. If people fail in child upbringing,
society sees them as failures.
Children are insurance for parents in old age because
they will give aged parents the necessary assistance in
later life: abandoning parents in old age would violate a
fundamental duty. Parents who fail to give their children
the best of education that can enable them earn a living
will have nobody to take proper care of them with love
and concern. Children who marry and have a family
become a source of great pride to their parents; infertility
and childlessness are a loathsome prospect. The children
are said to be a source of continuation of the family lineage
and insurance against permanent death, (Nsamenang,
2004). You are alive even after death because your whole
image and behaviour are reflected in the children you gave
birth to. Since children in this sense will become one’s
history, everybody protects them and will consequently
face any odds to have the children grow within a marital
union. There are, however, single parents who do manage
to bring up their children with utmost care so that they
grow to live by the expectations of society and equally get
to enjoy marital life.
Parts of these findings tie in with those of Soetan (1982)
which revealed that in-laws have an effect on the marital
life of men and women, and those of Filani (1984) which
recommended training skills to foster marital adjustments.
Over and above all, the findings are consistent with the
image of the African family being in a crisis of change
(Weisner, Kilbride, & Bradely, 1997)
Conclusion
Marriage contract
Our study is subjected to some limitations. Firstly, some of
the social groups used for this research work meet in a
common venue once a month, and others on a weekly basis.
This slowed down the data collection process. It was timeconsuming
and financially demanding to get to these
groups several times to get the questionnaire copies from
the respondents. Secondly, only Christians were used for
this study because Moslems, who constitute part of the
population of Cameroon and this research area, received
the questionnaire copies but did not return them, the reason
being that they cannot discuss their marital issues with a
non Moslem. It must be noted that this group of people give
their children in marriage as early as 12 years (girls in
particular).
Finally, only the literate were used for this study in a
region that has illiterates. The use of an interview might
have provided some details that the questionnaire could
not provide, but because we needed to maintain confidentiality
this could not be applied.
Nevertheless, our study revealed a picture of couples in
Cameroon persisting despite marital problems because of
respect for age-old traditions. Though the study did not
explore the effects of marital problems (and related frustration
and stress) on respondents’ psycho-emotional well
being, an association between the two is very likely
(Johnson & Booth, 1990). The nature of the marital
problems identified suggests the need for premarital and
marital counselling. This would enable couples to identify
their areas of weakness in relation to each other, and in the
relationship as a whole. Consequently, adjustments could
be made that may help to create an amicable relationship,
even in times of socio-cultural changes that have led some
Cameroonian couples into divorce and its challenges
within a community that rejects it.
References
Bakare, C.G.M. (1970). Marital Adjustment Scale. Behavioural
Science Research Unit Ibadan Nigeria.
Filani, T.O. (1984). An Experimental Study of Communication
Training and Cognitive Restructuring on Marital Adjustment
of some Couples. Ibadan Nigeria.
Johnson, D.R., & Booth, A. (1990). Rural Economic Decline
and Marital Qualit. A panel study of farm marriage.
Family Relations Journal of Applied Family and Studies,
39(2).
Kersten, K.K. (1990). Family Interventions. Family Relations
Journal of Applied Family Studies, 39(3).
Mbiti, J.S. (1969). African Philosophy. Chaucer Press.
MINPAT (2000). Cameroon Census Report by the Ministry of
Plan and Regional Development.
Nsamenang, A.B. (1992). Human Development in Cultural
Context. A Third World Perspective.
Nsamenang, A.B. (2000). Family and Marital Life Counselling.
Lecture Notes: B.U.S.T Bamenda Cameroon.
Nsamenang, A.B. (2004). Family and Marital Life Counselling.
Lecture Notes: B.U.S.T Bamenda Cameroon.
Soetan A. (1982). The Effects Of In—Laws on The Marital
Adjustment of Couples in Nigeria. University Ibadon
Nigeria.
Weisner, Bradley, & Kilbride (1997). African Families And The
Crisis Of Social Change. London.
Wright, H.N. (1981). The Family that Listens. Victor Books.
15

International Society for the Study of Behavioural Development
COMMENTARY: Adolescent and Young Adult
Romantic Relationships—The Need for a
Broader Conceptual Perspective
Shmuel Shulman
Department of Psychology, Bar Ilan University
Ramat Gan, Israel
E-mail: Shulman@mail.biu.ac.il
In the last decade or so the study of adolescent romantic
relationships has evolved dramatically, shedding light on the
centrality and importance of romance in the lives of adolescents
(Collins, 2003). The main body of research on adolescent
romantic relationships has been conceptualized within a
developmental framework and draws from the study of peer
relationships, which has affected the nature of sampling and
research methodology. The four papers in this issue which focus
on different aspects of romantic relationships and may seem
unrelated to each other point, in my opinion, to the broader
universal features and principles of romantic relationships and
their function for the individual and society.
In their paper, Connolly and McIsaac describe how their
interest in the study of romantic relationships grew out of a
research agenda focused on adolescents’ peer relationships
(Furman, Brown, & Feiring, 1999). Within this understanding,
earlier experiences with friends are carried over into, enacted
and operate the emergent romantic relationships. For example,
the capacity to balance the needs of self and other is associated
with intimacy in romantic relationships (Friedlander,
Connolly, Pepler, & Craig, in press). In a similar vein, a history of
having been bullied by one’s peer group may create later problematic
conditions for young people’s romantic relationships
(Williams, Connolly, & Cribbie, in press).
However, despite the similarities to friendships, romantic
relationships represent a highly distinctive, novel feature of
adolescent social experience (Giordano, Manning, & Longmore,
2006). For example, in contrast to close friendships that are
more settled, romantic relationships are characterized by
heightened emotionality: love, attraction, sexual desires, and
jealousy (Larson, Clore, & Wood, 1999). Though romantic
relationships are the main relational context of sexual behavior
(Furman & Shaffer-Hand, 2006), the fields of sexuality and
romantic relationships among adolescents have been described
as separate domains (Furman, 2002; Florsheim, 2003). The
separation between romantic relationships and sexual behavior
does not allow for a full understanding of the content and
meaning of romantic relationships; understanding romantic
relationships in a more integrative mode may lead to some new
insights.
In her seminal work, Fisher (Fisher, 1998, 2006; Fisher, Aron,
Mashek, Li, & Brown, 2002) differentiated between three types
of love experiences: lust, romantic attraction and romantic
attachment. Lust is characterized by the craving for sexual gratification;
attraction is characterized by elation, heightened energy,
and craving for union with a beloved; and attachment is characterized
by maintenance of proximity, affiliation, and a sense of
security and mutual commitment.
Fisher’s work, conceptualized within an evolutionary framework
(Fisher, 1998, 2006; Fisher et al., 2002) suggests that
humans are programmed to build and maintain mating relationships
for survival and procreation. Contingent upon the biological
network for reproduction, adolescents and young adults,
just like more mature adults, are susceptible to the search for
a partner, the capacity to be emotionally swept away by
romantic love and the desire to invest oneself in maintaining a
relationship (Fisher, 2006, p. 9).
Attraction has evolved to enable individuals to select
preferable potential mating partners and to motivate them to
focus their courtship attention on these individuals, thereby
conserving courtship time and energy (Fisher, 1998; Fisher et
al., 2002). Attraction is characterized by elation, heightened
energy, mood swings, focused attention, obsessive thinking
about a partner and craving for emotional union with him or
her (Aron, Fisher, Mashek, Strong, Li, & Brown, 2005; Fisher et
al., 2002). Individuals reporting feelings of attraction experience
a host of labile psycho-physiological responses such as exhilaration
and euphoria. They often think about the beloved obsessively,
to the extent of “intrusive thinking,” including exclusively
focused attention on the beloved and his/her well-being (Fisher,
1998).
Attachment or companionate love (Fisher, 2006) is characterized
by maintenance of proximity, affiliative gestures, and
expressions of calm and contentedness when in contact with
the long-term mating partner. Similarly, within the framework of
marital relationships and social psychology, adult as well as
adolescent romantic relationships have been conceptualized in
terms of affiliation, intimacy, attachment, and commitment
(Furman, Brown, & Feiring, 1999; Shaver & Hazan, 1988).
Intimacy leads to a deeper and more committed form of
relationship (Connolly & Goldberg, 1999). In turn, the presence
of commitment leads to a long-term relationship, enhancing the
bonding between partners, enabling them to express deeper
levels of caring for each other (Brown, 1999) and forming the
basis for the optimal development of offspring (Fisher, 2006).
Adopting an ethological perspective suggests that romantic
relationships among adolescents are more than simply a different
form of peer relationship. While on the one hand, becoming
attracted romantically, sexually involved, and learning to stay in
a steady relationship are markers of adolescent development
(Brown, 1999; Carver, Joyner, & Udry, 2003; Shulman & Scharf,
2000), these milestones are also central for an adaptive transition
to adulthood aimed at procreation and the well-being of
the next generation. Understanding romantic relationships as
expressions of an ethologically driven process can explain their
intensive dynamics and the importance culture attributes to
them.
A reading of the four papers shows that they did not
emerge solely from a developmental perspective on adolescent
romantic relationships, but also incorporate, in my opinion,
ethological understandings despite the fact that this is not
discussed explicitly. As they outline, Connolly and McIsaac’s
study grew out from a peer relationships agenda and their
paper discusses components such as group dating and the
balancing of connectedness and autonomy in romantic relationships.
Connolly and McIsaac also examine romantic break-ups
and tie them to psychosocial adolescent issues of intimacy and
autonomy. However, despite its association with age related
tasks, relationship termination is a major issue in the study of
romantic relationships, and yet it is less examined in connection
to adolescent friendships.
Negotiating the needs of self and other is an important
adolescent task in relations with parents, friends, and romantic
partners (Shulman & Knafo, 1997). Difficulties in this task may
lead to relationship difficulty or relationship termination. Saini’s
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2008 NEWSLETTER Number 1 Serial No. 53
paper describes another form of relational difficulty—romantic
aggression—and shows the extent to which aggression and
victimization between romantic partners affects individual
mental health. Adolescent and young adult college students
who reported being victimized by their romantic partner were
more likely to report higher levels of anxiety and depression.
From an ethological perspective these two papers focus on
conditions differentiating between adaptive and less adaptive
romantic relationships. During adolescence, individuals are
supposed to learn to cope with the inevitable strains of keeping
a romantic relationship intact (Connolly and McIsaac) and
managing conflicts and aggression (Saini). From an ethological
perspective, acquiring the capability to become involved in a
stable and adaptive romantic relationship is crucial for procreation
and the well-being of the next generation as it is related
to individual functioning within a relationship (Saini—low
depression and anxiety) and to withstanding difficulties that may
lead to a break-up of the relationship (Connolly and McIsaac).
The importance of establishing a long-lasting marital bond
for the sake of reproduction and the well-being of the next
generation is further embodied in Ngoran’s study on marital
relationships in Bamenda Cameroon. It was interesting to learn
how cultural transmission of rules, norms and values teaches
and leads the younger generation starting from early childhood
to adopt the role of husband/wife and of parent. Moreover,
parents are supposed to bear marital and personal difficulties
for the sake of the children born into the marital bond.
Diamond’s paper, though originating in the United States,
does not examine typically researched adolescent romantic
relationships. Yet through the examination of young women
who are highly variable in their sexual identification, Diamond
offers new insights that are relevant for the understanding of
romance across different populations. Diamond describes
patterns of bonds that contain the affective and behavioral
features of romantic relationships at large, such as emotional
passion, exclusivity, physical affection, and sexual behavior. Her
original contribution is the description of passionate friendships
(Diamond, 2000) that resemble the behavior and emotional
intensity of romantic relationships but lack explicit sexual activity
or desire.
Given the existing prejudices against sexual minority
persons and personal struggles with sexual identity, it can be
understood why the intimate relationships of some of these
young women do not include explicit sexual activity or desire.
Returning to Fisher’s ethological model (Fisher, 1998, 2006;
Fisher, Aron, Mashek, Strong, Li, & Brown, 2002) can be helpful
in better understanding the meaning of passionate friendships.
According to Fisher, love experiences consist of lust, romantic
attraction and romantic attachment. Refraining from explicit
sexual activity does not necessarily exclude the additional forms
of love experiences: attraction and attachment. The existence
of the romantic attraction component is what differentiates
between common friendships and passionate friendships
(which are closer to and resemble full romantic relationships).
Interestingly, as outlined above, the major body of research
on adolescent romantic relationships was mainly generated
within a developmental and peer relationship perspective.
However, though the majority of adolescents’ sexual behaviors
occur in the context of their romantic relationships (Giordano,
Manning, & Longmore, 2006), the fields of adolescent romantic
relationships and sexual behavior have not been integrated
(Furman, 2002) and authors in one field rarely reference the
body of knowledge in the other field. The research on relationships
treats relationships almost as if they were platonic. In
contrast, the study of sexual behavior has been conducted
within a health-risk framework and from a deficit model and
rarely considers the relational context in which the sexual
behavior is occurring (Welsh, Rostosky, & Kawaguchi, 2000).
Integration of the developmental and sexual perspectives
on relationships is conducive to a comprehensive understanding
of adolescent romantic relationships and their development.
Integration of the two fields can be helpful for differentiating
between adolescents whose sexual behaviors are expressions
of normal, healthy exploration and those whose expressions of
sexuality are symptomatic of psychological turmoil (Diamond
& Savin-Williams, 2003; Florsheim, 2003; Lefkowitz & Gillen,
2006). A normative perspective examines the meaning of sexual
behaviors, diversity of sexual behaviors (e.g., the importance of
kissing; Welsh, Haugen, Widman, Darling, & Grello, 2005), the
contexts in which they occur, and the individual characteristics
of adolescents that can change the meaning of the sexual
behaviors (Welsh et al., 2000).
In two separate studies in the United States and in Israel,
Welsh and her colleagues (Grello, Welsh, Dickson, & Harper,
2003; Grello, Welsh, & Harper, 2006), and we, ourselves,
(Shulman, Weisman, & Schleyer, 2008) examined the interplay
between romantic development and sexual behavior and its
association with depression or problem behavior. By distinguishing
between the varied relational contexts of the sexual
behavior, our findings revealed that sexual behavior within a
steady romantic relationship, representing mastering the capability
to become involved in stable relationships, was not associated
with increased depressive symptoms. However, sexual
behavior within transient romantic encounters, representing a
possible a lag in romantic development, was associated with
increased depressive symptoms.
While Giordano and Furman (Giordano, et al.,, 2006;
Furman & Shaffer-Hand, 2006) called attention to the fact that
adolescent romantic relationships and sexual behavior are not
integrated, little attention has been paid to the role of attraction
in romantic relationships. Though studies within a social
psychology perspective have dealt with and examined romantic
attraction (see for example Hatfield & Sprecher, 1986; Sternberg,
1998), this attraction has, however, been conceptualized
as one form of a romantic experience but has not been seen
as one of the three basic types of romantic relationships. In a
forthcoming paper, we (Shulman, Mayes, Cohen, Swain, &
Leckman, in press) examined the interplay between the intensity
of romantic attraction among couples at the early stage of
a relationship and their ability to cope with and resolve
disagreements. Findings suggested that higher levels of romantic
attraction are related to partners’ inclination to downplay their
disagreements and to negotiate their differences less successfully.
A second assessment of these couples after a period of six
weeks showed that where levels of romantic attraction among
romantic partners stayed stable, the partners showed an
increasing ability to recognize and face their disagreements and
that a tendency to negotiate disagreements more effectively
started to emerge. Conceptually, these findings suggest that two
processes operate within a bond between romantic partners.
The first process refers to the attraction or preoccupation
between partners as outlined by Fisher and the second refers
to the quality of conflict negotiation that evolves over time,
representing the movement toward a stable and balanced
relationship. Whereas at the initial stage of a romantic bond the
attraction process overshadows partners’ behavior as theorized
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International Society for the Study of Behavioural Development
by Fisher (Fisher, 1998, 2006; Fisher et al., 2002), over time
attachment between couples tends to become more prominent
and is expressed through their increased competence in
negotiating differences that is crucial for relationship stability.
I approached the reading of the four papers from within
the common romantic relationships approach that is embedded
within a developmental and peer relationship framework.
However, after reading them and realizing the unique contribution
of each paper, I realized that a broader framework is
required to put the four papers in context. Rereading them
within Fisher’s ethological perspective points to the behavioral
and emotional intensity of romantic relationships which are part
of a powerful network for reproduction (Fisher, 2006, p. 9) and
for this reason it is evidenced across cultures, adolescence and
young adulthood, and finds unique expression in sexual
minority populations.
References
Aron, A., Fisher, H., Mashek, D. J., Strong, G., Li, H., & Brown, L.L.
(2005). Reward, motivation, and emotion systems associated
with early-stage intense romantic love. Journal of
Neurophysiology, 94, 327–337.
Brown, B.B. (1999). “You’re going out with who?” Peer group
influences on adolescent romantic relationships. In: W.
Furman, B. B. Brown & C. Feiring (Eds.), The development of
romantic relationships in adolescence (pp. 291–329). New
York: Cambridge University Press.
Carver, K., Joyner, K., & Udry, J.R. (2003). National estimates of
adolescent romantic relationships. In P. Florsheim (Ed.),
Adolescent romantic relations and sexual behavior: Theory,
research, and practical implications (pp. 23–56). Mahawah, NJ:
Erlbaum.
Collins, W.A. (2003). More than myth: The developmental
significance of romantic relationships during adolescence.
Journal of Research on Adolescence, 13, 1–24.
Connolly, J., & Goldberg, A. (1999). Romantic relationships in
adolescence: the role of friends and peers in their emergence
and development. In W. Furman, B. B. Brown, &
C. Feiring (Eds.), The development of romantic relationships in
adolescence (pp. 266–290). New York: Cambridge
University Press.
Diamond, L.M. (2000). Passionate friendships among adolescent
sexual-minority women. Journal of Research on Adolescence,
10, 191–209.
Diamond, L.M., & Savin-Williams, R.C. (2003). The intimate
relationships of sexual minority youths. In G. Adams &
M. Berzonsky (Eds.), Blackwell handbook of adolescence
(pp. 393–412). Malden, MA: Blackwell.
Fisher, H.E. (1998). Lust, attraction, and attachment in
mammalian reproduction. Human Nature, 9, 23–52.
Fisher, H.E., Aron, A., Mashek, D., Li, H., & Brown, L.L. (2002).
Defining the brain systems of lust, romantic attraction, and
attachment. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 31, 413–9.
Fisher, H.E. (2006). Broken hearts: The nature and risks of
romantic rejection. In A.C. Crouter & A. Booth (Eds.),
Romance and sex in adolescence and emerging adulthood:
Risks and opportunities (pp. 3–28). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
Florsheim, P. (2003). Adolescent romantic and sexual behavior:
What we know and where we go from here. In P. Florsheim
(Ed.) Adolescent romantic relations and sexual behavior:
Theory, research, and practical implications (pp. 371–385).
Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
Friedlander, L., Connolly, J., Pepler, D., & Craig, W. (in press).
Biological, Familial and peer influences on dating in early
adolescence. Archives of Sexual Behavior.
Furman, W., Brown, B.B., & Feiring, C. (Eds.) (1999). The development
of romantic relationships in adolescence. New York:
Cambridge University Press.
Furman, W. (2002) The emerging field of adolescent romantic
relationships. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 11,
177–180.
Furman, W., & Shaffer-Hand, L. (2006). The slippery nature of
romantic relationships: Issues in definition and differentiation.
In A. Crouter & A. Booth (Eds), Romance and sex in
adolescence and emerging adulthood: Risks and opportunities
(pp. 171–178). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
Giordano, P.C., Manning, W.D., & Longmore, M.A. (2006).
Adolescent romantic relationships: An emerging portrait of
their nature and developmental significance. In A.C. Crouter
& A. Booth (Eds.), Romance and sex in adolescence and
emerging adulthood (pp. 127–150). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
Grello, C.M., Welsh, D.P., Dickson, J.W., & Harper, M.S. (2003).
Dating and sexual relationship trajectories and adolescent
functioning. Adolescent & Family Health, 3, 103–112.
Grello, C.M., Welsh, D.P., & Harper, M.S. (2006). No strings
attached: The nature of casual sex in late adolescents. The
Journal of Sex Research, 43, 255–268.
Hatfield, E., & Sprecher, S. (1986). Measuring passionate love in
intimate relationships. Journal of Adolescence, 9, 383–410.
Larson, R.W., Clore, G.L., & Wood, G.A. (1999). The emotions
of romantic relationships: Do they wreak havoc on
adolescents? In C. Feiring, W. Furman, & B.B. Brown (Eds.)
The development of romantic relationships in adolescence
(pp. 19–49). NY, US: Cambridge University Press.
Lefkowitz, E.S., & Gillen, M.M. (2006). “Sex is just a normal part
of life”: Sexuality in emerging adulthood. In J.J. Arnett &
J.L. Tanner (Eds.), Emerging adults in America: Coming of age
in the 21 st century (pp. 235–256). Washington, DC: APA.
Shaver, P.R., & Hazan, C. (1988). A biased overview of the study
of love. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 5,
473–501.
Shulman, S., & Knafo, D. (1997). Balancing closeness and individuality
in adolescent close relationship. International Journal of
Behavioral Development, 21, 687–702.
Shulman, S., Mayes, L.C., Cohen, T., Swain, J.E., & Leckman, J.F. (in
press). Romantic attraction and conflict negotiation among
late adolescent and early adult romantic couples. Journal of
Adolescence.
Shulman, S., & Scharf, M. (2000). Adolescent romantic behaviors
and perceptions: Age-related differences and links with
family and peer relationships. Journal of Research on Adolescence,
10, 99–118.
Shulman, S., Waisman, O., & Schleyer, M. (2008). Sexual behavior
and depression: The role of adolescent casual and stable
relationships. In S. Shulman (Chair), Adolescent sexual
behavior and depression. Symposium accepted for presentation
at the biennial meeting of the Society for Research
on Adolescence, Chicago, IL.
Sternberg, R.J. (1998). Cupid’s arrow, the course of love through
time. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Welsh, D.P., Rostosky, S.S., & Kawaguchi, M.C. (2000). A normative
perspective of adolescent girls’ developing sexuality. In
C.B. Travis & J.S. White (Eds.), Sexuality, society, and feminism:
Psychological perspectives on women (pp. 111–140). Washington,
DC: APA.
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2008 NEWSLETTER Number 1 Serial No. 53
Welsh, D.P., Haugen, P.T., Widman, L., Darling, N., & Grello, C.M.
(2005). Kissing is good: A developmental investigation of
sexuality in adolescent romantic couples. Sexuality Research
and Social Policy, 2, 32–41.
Williams, T., Connolly, J., & Cribbie, R. (in press). Light and heavy
heterosexual activities of young Canadian adolescents:
Normative patterns and differential predictors. Journal of
Research on Adolescence.
COMMENTARY: Why is a Cross-Cultural
Perspective on Romantic Experiences in
Adolescence Clearly Needed?
Inge Seiffge-Krenke
Department of Psychology, University of Mainz
Mainz, Germany
E-mail: seiffge@uni-mainz.de
The scientific study of romantic relations during adolescence
has only recently begun to grow in developmental psychology.
It is not an easy study, as relationships with romantic partners
during the early stages of adolescence are mostly casual, less
intense, and short-lived. Even at later stages, romantic experiences
may assume a variety of forms, ranging from those which
parallel “close friendships” to those typical for “casual dating” or
“exclusive dating” relationships. Sometimes the adolescents
themselves are not sure whether they are involved in a crossgender
friendship or a romantic relationship (Leaper &
Anderson, 1997).
In recent years, models of romantic development have been
proposed (Brown, 1999; Connolly & Goldberg, 1999), according
to which relationships progress from a more casual initial
stage towards a more committed affection phase. In addition,
studies have supported the idea that adolescent romance
develops in terms of phases that follow a specific sequence with
a different focus on self, and on the impact of both peers and
the romantic partner (Seiffge-Krenke, 2003). Further research
has analyzed the beginnings and endings of romance, nicely
summarized by Jennifer Connolly and Caroline McIsaac in this
newsletter, and informed us that unmet needs that lead to a
break-up may be very similar to the needs that motivate young
people to start a relationship.
Studies placing romantic relationships of adolescents in the
context of other significant relationships at this age, such as
relationships with parents, peers, siblings and close same-sex
friends, are on the increase. However, as Lisa Diamond showed
in this newsletter, it took some time until researchers turned
their attention to romantic development in sexual minority
youth; her contribution underscores the variety of different
types and functions of romantic relationships in this population.
That romantic experiences are linked with different indices
of adaptation is a substantial finding in several studies. Increases
in depression, and in externalizing behaviors were found among
youth who dated regularly. It is noteworthy that, in recent
studies, the frequency and impact of aggression in romance and
couple relationship has come into focus. Two contributions in
this newsletter address this topic. In research based in India,
Sunil Saini shows that relationship aggression is linked to a
more negative perception of the relationships and, that males
and females experience equally high levels of relationship
aggression, highlighting the idea that aggression is reciprocal.
Gladys Ngoran’s contribution further elaborates on the “darker
side” of partnerships. It became apparent in her research in
Cameroon that the lack of communication is common for
couples, and that separation is perceived as personal shame and
a problem for the larger community. Her contribution, like that
of Connolly and McIsaac from Canada, shows that it is necessary
to include the cultural background in order to advance our
understanding of romantic relations.
Clearly, we need more studies on adolescent couples from
different ethnic backgrounds. But why is it urgently necessary
to adopt a cultural perspective? In Western societies,
adolescents make up a decreasing proportion of the overall
population, whereas an increasing proportion of such youth are
characterized by diversity in ethnic background and greater
poverty. In general, culture teaches adolescents about romance,
based on accepted traditions, mores and practices. Culture and
tradition determine the meaning and significance of romantic
experiences, and as a result determine how adolescents behave
in romantic exchanges (Brown et al., 2002). These cultural
differences can be traced into marriage, as the contribution of
Ngoran in this newsletter shows.
There are significant variations in dating and marriage rituals
across different ethnic groups (Kagitcibasi, 1996). There is also
quite high variation in the values and goals of a romance. For
example, the Western and North American worldview places
great value on individual expression, freedom and choice. In
European countries, the idealization of romance has a long
tradition since medieval times. For the Eastern worldview, what
is best for the social group to which one belongs is more
important than individual choice and freedom. For the African
worldview, spirituality is important, and the focus is on connectedness
to the extended family, as the contribution of Ngoran
underscores. There are different cultural scripts stipulating the
extent to which positive or negative emotions (such as
aggression) are openly expressed. Furthermore, the impact of
close friends and peers on the choice of romantic partner
among teens is more pronounced in Western and North
American cultures, while acceptance and expectations from
parents are more important in other cultures. And there is of
course a high variation in religiosity, parenting practices, and
styles of intimacy in diverse nations which impacts romantic
relationships. Conceptions of romance, behavior and scripts in
romantic encounters are all influenced by the cultural background
of the adolescents.
Because the developmental context of many adolescents in
Western industrialized countries is now characterized by
increasing ethnic diversity, romantic partners not infrequently
come from different cultural backgrounds. Migrant adolescents
may attempt to assimilate into the new culture by having a
romance; the romantic liaison may serve as a way of being
acculturated into the others partner’s group. On the one hand,
cross-ethnic relationships offer a rich opportunity for broadening
relationship experiences. On the other hand, tensions and
conflicts may arise between developing an ethnic identity and
trying to fit into the broader majority culture.
Indeed, conflicts are an integral part of any relationship, and
it is important to balance both negative, i.e. conflict-related, and
positive relationship qualities in romantic partnerships. Not
much research to date has dealt with specific stressors in
romantic experiences. Longitudinal research on conflict
management (Nieder & Seiffge-Krenke, 2001) revealed a significant
decrease in romantic stress over time; concurrently, the
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International Society for the Study of Behavioural Development
quality of romantic relationships changed towards greater
intimacy and affection.
Adolescents from different cultures, for example individualistic
and collectivistic cultures, may experience quite different
types of stressors when attempting to gain emotional
autonomy from parents. In addition, the ramifications a
romantic relationship has on close friendships may differ across
cultures. Further, issues of commitment and closeness in the
romantic partnership, as compared to individuation, may be of
different concern for adolescents stemming from different
countries. Finally, the sexual aspect of romantic relations may
cause stress, depending on cultural norms and prescriptions.
In a 20-nation study (N=15347, age 12 to 18 years), typical
stressors adolescents experienced in romantic relationships
depending on their cultural background were assessed (Seiffge-
Krenke, 2006). Adolescents filled in questionnaires assessing
recent romantic stressors. According to Brown et al. (2002), the
adolescents from the 17 nations were grouped together
according to regions, including Middle Europe (for example
Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands, England), Southern
Europe (for example Greece, Italy, France, Spain) Northern
Europe (for example Finland, Norway) Eastern Europe (for
example, Poland, Russia, Estonia, Lithuania) Asia and the far East
(for example, Pakistan, Hong Kong; Korea ) and South America
(for example, Peru, Mexico).
The findings showed that romantic stress was highest
among adolescents from Middle Europe, followed by Southern
Europe, and that adolescents from the Far East, South America
and Eastern Europe named considerably fewer romantic stressors.
Feelings of jealousy and the impact of romance on close
friendships were of great concern for adolescents from Middle
and Southern Europe. Adolescents from South America and
the Far East were mainly stressed by feeling unsure about the
romantic partners’ feelings and by the fear of hurting their
respective partner. Age differences emerged, too, illustrating
that the early phases of romantic encounters were perceived
as more stressful then later stages. Noteworthy, too, were
gender differences, with females worrying more about the
impact of the romance on their close friendships with other
girls, while males were more concerned about not having a
partner. Interestingly, differences depending on the marital status
of the parents were also found. Adolescents from two-parent
families were much more concerned about the romantic
relationship than adolescents from single parent families.
Considering the effect size of the findings, the impact of the
culture or region was by far the most important, followed by
the impact of the family status of the adolescent. Age and
gender effects were of minor importance. Taken together, the
study shows that it is important to consider diversity in
romantic relationships, depending on the cultural background
of the adolescents.
Gray and Steinberg (1999) have suggested that the stress
perceived in romantic relationships is only partly related to the
romantic affair as such and that its origin lies in the diverse functions
romantic relationships serve for adolescents. They
proposed that the development of romantic interests is inherently
linked to the task of separation and individuation from the
family. The emergence of romantic activity can be seen as part
of a more general process in the development of emotional
autonomy first taking place in the family context and later on,
as the quality of romances changes from casual to more
committed, in the peer context. Apparently, as the abovementioned
findings illustrate, adolescents from different cultures
showed a different focus on the self, the impact of peers, and
concern for the partner. However, a lot of research is still
necessary to clarify the culture-dependent conceptions of
romance, the different behavioral scripts and the cultural framework
of romantic experience. Also, the developmental
sequence following diverse phases which has been established
for Western industrialized cultures, needs to be validated in
different cross-cultural settings. It is not clear whether the typical
Western sequence from more casual, short-term encounters
to exclusive, long-term and bonded relationships is characteristic
for adolescents living in other cultures. Thus, romantic stress
may not only differ, depending on the phases of romantic
development, but is influenced by the cultural context.
Linking adolescent romantic experiences to the context of
their rapidly changing social world may clarify the outstanding
functions of romance in adolescence as well as the specific
strains a romantic relationship places on those same
adolescents.
References
Brown, B.B. (1999). You’re going out with who? Peer group influences
on adolescent romantic relationships. In W. Furman,
B.B. Brown, & C. Feiring, (Eds.), The development of romantic
relationships in adolescence (pp. 291–329). New York:
Cambridge University Press.
Brown, B.B., Larson, & Saraswathi, T.S. (2002). The world’s youth.
The adolescence in eight regions of the globe. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Connolly, J.A., & Goldberg, A. (1999). Romantic relationships in
adolescence: The role of friends and peers in their emergence.
In W. Furman, B.B. Brown, & C. Feiring, (Eds.), The
development of romantic relationships in adolescence
(pp. 266–290). New York: Cambridge University Press.
Kağıtc‚ıbas‚ı, C. (1996). Family and human development across
cultures. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Leaper, C., & Anderson, K.J. (1997). Gender development and
heterosexual romantic relationships during adolescence. In
S. Shulman & W.A. Collins (Eds.), Romantic relationships in
adolescence: Developmental perspectives (pp. 85–104). San
Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Nieder, T., & Seiffge-Krenke, I. (2001). Coping with stress in
different phases of romantic development. Journal of
Adolescence, 24, 297–311.
Seiffge-Krenke, I. (2003). Testing theories of romantic development
from adolescence to young adulthood: Evidence of a
developmental sequence. International Journal of Behavioral
Development, 27, 519–531.
Seiffge-Krenke, I. (2006). Nach Pisa. Stress in der Schule und mit
den Eltern. Bewältigungskompetenz deutscher Jugendlicher
im internationalen Vergleich. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck &
Ruprecht.
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2008 NEWSLETTER Number 1 Serial No. 53
Reports from the Lab
Studying the Formation of Romantic
Relationships: A Case for Prospective
Online Studies
Ines Schindler*
Department of Psychology, University of Utah
Salt Lake City, USA
E-mail: ines.schindler@uni-jena.de
A lot of research has focused on the initiation, development,
and dynamics of romantic relationships (cf. Cate &
Lloyd, 1992; Gottman, 1994; Surra, Gray, Cottle, &
Boettcher, 2004). However, one gap in this literature has
remained: We know little about what happens between the
first date and the establishment of a committed relationship
(or failure to do so); and what we do know is mostly based
on retrospective accounts. In the following, I will report on
our experiences in the longitudinal Partner and Study
Selection (PASS) Study (conducted by Ines Schindler,
Cynthia A. Berg, and Christopher P. Fagundes at the
University of Utah, and funded through a research fellowship
and research grant of the German Research Foundation
(DFG) awarded to Ines Schindler, as part of which
we ventured into this largely uncharted territory of early
relationship formation. With this project we had to face
three major issues that complicate the study of how people
select romantic partners and that may be responsible for the
described dearth of longitudinal research in this area: (1) It
is impossible to know when an individual will start dating
a potential partner; (2) It is imperative to gather data on a
fledgling relationship right after the first few dates, that is,
when the dating partners have not yet decided on the fate
of their relationship; (3) Incomplete data as a result of
missed assessments or participant dropout are unavoidable.
Our way of dealing with these three issues was to
conduct a prospective longitudinal study on partner selection
where we mainly employed online assessments. I will
now share some insights that we gained during the PASS
Study as well as suggestions for future research.
The PASS Study: Design, Procedure, and
Research Questions
Our central aim in conducting the PASS Study was to
investigate the process of selecting a romantic partner
and/or college major longitudinally in a sample of undergraduate
students (University of Utah and Salt Lake
Community College). We recruited 150 heterosexual
participants (53% women) who were not in a committed
relationship (n =125) and/or undecided on their major (n =
55) and followed up on their decision-making process for
the next 5–12 months (depending on when they were
recruited). Participants completed five-day diaries, weekly
*Ines Schindler is now at the Center for Applied Developmental Science,
Friedrich Schiller University of Jena, Germany.
assessments (partner choice only), and monthly assessments
online, which asked about their perceptions of the
decision to be made (e.g., importance, irreversibility),
decision criteria (e.g., matching interests with partner,
others’ opinion), and ways of making a decision (e.g.,
relying on intuition, rational thought). Whereas the aspect
of the study focused on choice of major started once participants
had been recruited, we had to wait for our participants
to start dating before we could begin with the partner
choice part. As soon as participants indicated that they had
gone on a first or second date and intended to date this
partner again, we had them complete a five-day partner
diary, followed by weekly partner assessments for the next
eight weeks or until they either stopped dating this partner
or had entered into a committed relationship (i.e., dating
seriously and exclusively). If no decision on whether to
commit to this partner or not had been reached within eight
weeks (which only happened in four cases), we followed
up on the dating relationship with monthly assessments.
Once participants had started a committed relationship, we
followed up on this relationship with monthly assessments
(asking about continuation of the relationship, relationship
satisfaction, and perceptions of the partner) until the end of
the study.
The final PASS Study assessments were conducted in
October 2007 and we are currently in the process of analyzing
the longitudinal data. Right now, our analyses focus on
two research questions. First, we investigate how dispositional
attachment to romantic partners influences the
partner choice process and how normative attachment
functions (cf. Hazan & Zeifman, 1994) develop in a new
relationship between the first few dates and up to two years
into the relationship. We found that people who reported a
disposition toward avoidant partner attachment at the
intake assessment were less likely to commit to a romantic
partner during the study (after controlling for age, gender,
time of study participation, desire to form a committed
relationship, number of previous relationships, and selfrated
physical attractiveness; Murdock, Schindler,
Fagundes, & Diamond, 2008). With regard to normative
attachment functions, our preliminary findings clearly indicated
that partner attachment starts developing even before
a relationship is considered as committed.
A second research question focuses on the decisionmaking
process during partner choice. I have conducted
initial analyses of how the perceived attractiveness (ratings
of importance of decision criteria ratings of dating
partner on criteria) of chosen and nonchosen partners
changes before the decision to either commit to this partner
or stop dating is reached. These analyses show that the
experimentally well-established bolstering of preferred
alternatives and denigration of rejected alternatives (for a
review see Brownstein, 2003) also occurs during partner
choice in real life: People who form a committed relationship
increase the perceived attractiveness of their dating
partner prior to commitment and people who stop dating
report decreasing attractiveness of their partner. Future
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International Society for the Study of Behavioural Development
analyses will focus on interindividual differences in the
amount of change in perceived attractiveness, how they can
be predicted, and how they relate to satisfaction with one’s
decision.
A Watched Pot Never Boils? How Many
Participants Does It Take to Study
Relationship Formation?
A challenge that arises with the described prospective
approach to studying partner choice is that participants
will not necessarily date or start a committed relationship
within 5–12 months of recruitment. Therefore, it would be
helpful to have some information on the percentage of a
given population who will form a romantic relationship
within a defined time frame. Unfortunately, when we
started the PASS Study, we had no such information available.
Our strategy therefore was to recruit undergraduates
between 18–27 years who indicated that they were looking
for a romantic partner. We assumed that undergraduates of
this age group (who also were about 50% Mormon as is
representative of the Salt Lake City area) would be highly
motivated to date and, as part of the undergraduate experience,
would have plenty of opportunities to meet new
people of the opposite sex. In spite of these favorable
conditions, we found that the majority of our participants
were unsuccessful in forming a committed relationship
during the study—and what complicates things even more,
those who entered into a committed relationship did not
necessarily stay in that relationship.
The changes in relationship status that we observed in
the PASS Study between August 2006 and August 2007 are
illustrated in Figure 1. As can be seen in panel A, out of
those 61 women and 64 men who indicated that they were
looking for a romantic partner at the intake assessment,
30% dropped out of the study or did not provide any information
on their dating life. Although we saw a fair amount
of dating activity among those who remained in the study,
34% did not date at all or at least never made it past a first
date (or series of first dates) and 10% dated casually but
never entered into a committed relationship. Finally, 26%
committed to partner at some point in the study. It should
A: Out of those 125 participants who were
initially not committed to a partner . . .
be noted, however, that we studied up to four different
dating partners per participant and that out of those 33
participants who committed to a romantic partner eight
only did so after they had dated other partners casually. It
was also interesting that 12% of the committed relationships
in the PASS Study did not survive for more than six
months (Figure 1, panel B). In sum, based on our experience
we would suggest that researchers interested in the
prospective study of romantic relationship development
during young adulthood consider that only about a quarter
of a given sample may actually form a longer-term
committed relationship during the period of observation.
In addition to recruiting large samples, researchers may
want to consider other ways of increasing the chances of
observing the formation of relationships. Speed-dating was
recently discovered as a valuable method for studying
romantic attraction (Finkel, Eastwick, & Matthews, 2007)
and should also be a useful tool in studying relationship
development prospectively. In our future research, we plan
to include a subsample of participants in a speed-dating
study and follow them up longitudinally for a year to
increase the chances of observing partner selection
processes. This will further increase the likelihood of
having both dating partners in the sample. While we would
have been interested in the perspective of both dating
partners, we decided that trying to recruit their dating
partners through our PASS Study participants would have
created too much of an interference in these fledgling
relationships.
It’s Now or Never! Online Assessments as a
Way to Ease Data Collection
A second challenge that we faced was to ensure that participants
contact us when they start dating and are able to
complete partner assessments in close succession to going
out on a date. We dealt with this problem by using online
data collection methods. We e-mailed our participants once
a month and asked them to fill out college major assessments.
As part of these e-mails, we included a monthly
reminder for participants to please contact us as soon as
they start dating a potential partner. On the day following
B: Out of those 58 participants who already were
in a committed relationship or had started one . . .
2% unknown
26% committed
to a partner
10% dated
casually
30% unknown
34% did not date/
get past 1st date
71% were still
committed to their
partner at the final
assessment
12% broke
up within
6 months
15% broke
up after over
6 months
Figure 1. Changes in relationship status observed during the PASS Study: Formation (panel A) and termination (panel B) of
relationships.
22

2008 NEWSLETTER Number 1 Serial No. 53
the date, participants were instructed to go to our webpage
and log on with an individual user-id and password to
complete a partner diary on five consecutive days. The
diary was followed by weekly online assessments. In
addition to allowing participants easy access to the questionnaires
at their preferred time (some actually did fill out
assessments at 2 am), the online questionnaires enabled us
to realize an individualized schedule for every participant,
include person-specific information (such as the name of
their dating partners), and include a branching structure in
the assessments so that only questions applicable for this
participant were asked. For instance, our study included
four different partner assessments (diary, weekly and
monthly dating assessments, assessment for committed
relationships) and an online database that contained the
information about which assessment is to be displayed for
each participant at his or her next login. The partner questionnaires
always started by asking whether the participant
is still dating a specific partner. In case the participant indicated
the he or she is not dating any longer, the assessment
asked about who terminated the relationship and reasons
for its termination instead of how much the participant
would like to commit to this partner.
We found the online assessments to be a great asset to
our study as they were a fast and convenient method for
participants to provide responses and also saved a lot of
time for data entry and correcting inevitable errors in data
entries. By employing user-ids and passwords, we also
made sure that only our participants had access to questionnaires.
However, the downside to employing online
assessments with this level of sophistication is that their
development requires programming skills that researchers
in psychology usually do not have. We greatly benefited
from having a computer professional available in the
psychology department of the University of Utah who
devoted countless hours to programming our online
assessments. Researchers who do not know how to
program in HTML or use java script (or do not have the
time to do so) would be well advised to recruit the help of
someone with these programming skills before attempting
to conduct a study like the PASS Study. While there are
solutions for conducting online research for people without
programming skills (cf. Reynolds, Woods, & Baker, 2007 for
different ways of conducting online research), we doubt
that it would have been possible to create a questionnaire
and database structure like the one we used with these
applications.
Overall, we highly recommend online assessments for
researchers interested in relationship development, especially
when conducting research with an undergraduate
population who usually have access to a computer at home
and/or at school. While this makes completing assessments
more convenient, however, it is still possible to “miss the
action” when waiting for participants to contact the
research team. Even though we sent monthly e-mail
reminders, we still had a few participants who failed to
notify us of a dating partner before the relationship was
committed. In our future research, we plan to include
monthly online assessments asking about all dates of the
past month (even if they did not progress past a first date)
to further reduce the likelihood of participants not reporting
on dating relationships.
You Can’t Have It All: Dealing with
Incomplete Data
Even if data collection is conducted online and puts
minimal demands on participants, it is impossible to avoid
some missed assessments or sample attrition—especially if
measurements are conducted once a month or even more
often throughout a year. Most participants in our study had
missed assessments even if they did not drop out of the
study altogether. People got busy with coursework, were
temporarily out of town, or had trouble with a broken
computer. As a result of missed assessments, the different
timing of participants dating, and different durations of
study participation, the number of partner assessments
available for each participant varies widely (from none to
several diaries, weekly assessments, and monthly assessments
for different partners). This would have created a
problem when analyzing these data before full information
maximum likelihood estimation was implemented in
statistical software (e.g., Mplus, HLM) to analyze incomplete
data without either imputing or dropping missing
observations. Currently it is easy to analyze longitudinal
data with different numbers of observations per participant
and model the exact timing and spacing of repeated observations
(for more details see Collins & Sayer, 2001; McArdle
& Nesselroade, 2003; Singer & Willett, 2003). In the PASS
Study, we organize our data so as to represent time before
and after making a decision. We model weekly change until
the decision to either commit to this partner or stop dating
is reached. For committed relationships, we model monthly
change across months since the beginning of the relationship.
Thus, owing to current data analysis options, there is
no need to shy away from designs that will most likely lead
to incomplete data and irregular intervals..
References
Brownstein, A.L. (2003). Biased predecision processing.
Psychological Bulletin, 129, 545–568.
Cate, R.M., & Lloyd, S.A. (1992). Courtship. Newbury Park,
CA: Sage.
Collins, L.M., & Sayer, A.G. (Eds.) (2001). New methods for
the analysis of change. Washington, DC: American
Psychological Association.
Finkel, E.J., Eastwick, P.W., & Matthews, J. (2007). Speeddating
as an invaluable tool for studying romantic
attraction: A methodological primer. Personal Relationships,
14, 149–166.
Gottman, J.M. (1994). What predicts divorce? The relationship
between marital processes and marital outcomes. Hillsdale,
NJ: Erlbaum.
Hazan, C., & Zeifman, D. (1994). Sex and the psychological
tether. In K. Bartholomew & D. Perlman (Eds.),
Advances in personal relationships: Vol. 5 Attachment
processes in adulthood (pp. 151–177). London: Kingsley.
McArdle, J.J., & Nesselroade, J.R. (2003). Growth curve
analysis in contemporary psychological research. In
J.A. Schinka & W.F. Velicer (Eds.), Handbook of psychology:
Vol. 2: Research methods in psychology (pp. 447–480).
Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
Murdock, K.W., Schindler, I., Fagundes, C.P., & Diamond,
L.M. (2008). Maybe it is me? How attachment style and
depressive symptoms predict failed relationship initiation
23

International Society for the Study of Behavioural Development
and commitment. Poster presented at the 9th Annual
Meeting of the Society for Personality and Social
Psychology, Albuquerque, February 7–9, 2008.
Reynolds, R.A., Woods, R., & Baker, J.D. (Eds.) (2007).
Handbook of research on electronic surveys and measurements.
Hershey, PA: Idea Group Reference/IGI Global.
Singer, J.D., & Willett, J.B. (2003). Applied longitudinal data
analysis: Modeling change and event occurrence. New York:
Oxford University Press.
Surra, C.A., Gray, C.R., Cottle, N., & Boettcher, T.M.J.
(2004). Research on mate selection and premarital
relationships: What do we really know? In A.L. Vangelisti
(Ed.), Handbook of family communication (pp. 53–82).
Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
Studying the Daily Life of Couples by
Using Mobile Diaries
Kaisa Malinen and Anna Rönkä
Family Research Centre, University of Jyväskylä,
Finland
E-mail: kaisa.malinen@jyu.fi and
anna.ronka@edu.jyu.fi
The Palette study, located in the Family Research Centre at
the University of Jyväskylä, is a research project concentrating
on the everyday life of families with young children. As
an important aspect of family life, the spousal relationship
is studied in the Palette project using methods suitable for
a daily approach. One aim of the project is to develop diary
methods that capture daily family dynamics. Technology
has developed enormously during recent years, offering
researchers several new possibilities for data collection. In
this article we will demonstrate how we have used mobile
phones as a diary data collection tool in studying daily
family life among Finnish couples.
Daily life of couples
Daily life is one of the new areas of interest in marital and
family research (e.g., Laurenceau & Bolger, 2005). A daily
life approach was put together and named as the Emotion
Transmission Paradigm in Family Research at the end of
the last millennium by Larson and Almeida (1999). In
marital studies, rather than asking “What are the determinants
of spousal satisfaction?” or “Who will be divorced?”
this new research paradigm sets the following types of
research questions: “What kinds of emotions are triggered
in daily situations between spouses?”, “What are the ‘good,
bad and ugly’ moments for spouses in their everyday life?”
and “Why are there better and worse days and weeks in the
marital relationship?”.
Emotions occupy an important role in research on daily
spousal relationships because they are considered barometers
of daily wellbeing and because of their central role in
families today. Other issues that are commonly studied by
taking a daily approach include the quantity and the
quality of spousal interaction, daily and weekly rhythms,
and daily stressors and coping behaviors. In families with
young children, parents divide their time and energy
between many life spheres: children, work, homework,
friends, relatives, hobbies—and the spousal relationship.
Therefore, studies on daily life have focused on time use,
reconciliation in the spousal relationship and working life,
and emotional transmission between different life spheres.
The spousal relationship is a central moderator in this life
palette as it can either facilitate or hinder the quality of
daily life.
A large part of the existing knowledge of the spousal
relationship has been gained through observations and
questionnaires, and time frames of seconds and minutes or
of months and even years have been utilized. As stated by
Larson and Almeida (1999), the study of daily life links
these research traditions together by filling in the missing
time frame of hours and days. Observational studies may
capture the micro aspects of spousal interaction, but the
question of the generalizability of these results to the
natural contexts of couples’ daily lives remains open. On
the other hand, longitudinal studies (or questionnaire
studies in general) may answer questions about the effects
of work stress on spousal satisfaction, but leave open the
question of mechanisms through which these life spheres
interact with each other. Against this background, in the
Palette study diaries were chosen as a tool to examine the
spousal relationship from the viewpoint of everyday life. In
contrast to observations and questionnaires, diaries permit
the examination of day-to-day events and experiences in
their natural context and enable the effects of retrospection
to be minimized.
Diary method
In diary studies, the participants make frequent reports on
the events and experiences of their daily lives. The idea is
to study the phenomenon in question for a limited time
intensively, meaning, for example, several times a day over
the course of a week. The main benefit is to obtain memoryunbiased,
situation-specific information on daily emotions,
interactions and use of time. This kind of approach offers
researchers better possibilities to study causal relations and
rapid changes. The diary method is well suited to marital
research as it enables both members of a relationship to be
studied at the same time, thus allowing their different
voices to be heard.
The wide variety of diary methods available differ in
a number of methodological aspects, such as frequency of
measurement points (ESM, daily diary approach); type of
design (interval-, signal- and event-based); form of diary
questions (e.g., structured, open-ended, daily check-list)
and use of reporting tools (e.g., paper-and-pencil, electronic).
Recently, the diary approach has been intensively
developed (see reviews by Bolger, Davis, & Rafaeli, 2003;
Christensen, Barrett, Bliss-Moreau, Lebo, & Kaschub, 2003;
Scollon, Kim-Pieto, & Diener, 2003). One of the main areas
of development concerns the tools used in diary reporting.
The traditional paper-and-pencil method has been
replaced or at least complemented by a range of new electronic
tools and innovations such as pagers, telephones
and palmtops (for more on the ongoing debate regarding
“paper or plastic” see Green, Rafaeli, Bolger, Shrout, &
Reis, 2006).
24

2008 NEWSLETTER Number 1 Serial No. 53
How did we do it? The mobile diary design
in the Palette study
In the Family Research Centre we have developed a diary
method for the study of daily family dynamics in which
traditional paper-and-pencil and a new technology, i.e.
mobile phones, are used side by side. We have used and
tested this format in two family studies: the Pilot study in
2003 and the Palette study in 2006.
The purpose of Palette study, funded by the Academy
of Finland, was to shed light on everyday family life in
working families with young children. Intensive diary data
covering a one-week time span was collected at the end of
the year 2006. In addition, a larger number of parents (n =
204 mothers and 161 fathers in 208 families) filled in questionnaires
concerning, for example, work, parenting styles
and stress, the marital relationship, child well-being and
temperament and day-care. The diary design involved altogether
107 families, each family consisting of parents (or
stepparents) and one target child. The children were all
drawn from municipal day care centres. Diary data were
collected by using three types of diary: a mobile diary, a
paper-and-pencil diary and a child diary. In the case of the
paper-and-pencil diary, parents answered in the traditional
manner the diary questions every evening, which were
given in a separate booklet containing a daily check-list,
questions about use of time, and four open-ended questions
concerning both good and challenging situations
within the family. The mobile diary study involved 42
families and included both parents (or stepparents) from
the family.
The design of our mobile diary was a combination of
the interval- and event-based design—the reporting
occurred at specific time periods in accordance with the
participants’ working schedule (more about the mobile
diary method in Rönkä, Malinen, Lämsä, Kinnunen, &
Tolvanen, 2007). In order to be able to study work-family
interaction (e.g., spillover and crossover) in a relatively
small sample we included in our mobile study only the
families in which both parents worked in regular day shifts.
The one-week diary phase began on Monday morning and
ended on the following Sunday evening. The mobile diary
consisted of ten questions concerning mood and interactions
to be answered three times a day in the form of
short text messages (SMSs) using a mobile phone. As both
parents from 42 families kept mobile diaries for seven days
the mobile diary data comprise a total of over 1600 SMSs
(missing answers excluded). The reporting times and
instructions together with the structured diary questions
were given in a diary booklet. The booklet was designed to
be compact in size so that it could be easily carried by the
participants. The participants sent their answers, a list of 10
numbers, by SMSs. On workdays the reporting time was in
the morning before going to work, in the afternoon and in
the evening before going to bed.
As we were using a technically based data collection
tool and the answers were sent directly to the database, we
were able to react immediately to the responses. The
participants were told that the program would not take
delivery of answers that were not sent within the agreed
times. Moreover, there was no possibility to change the
answers afterwards. The diary program involved several
activities that gave feedback about the transmission of
answers and helped the participants to remember to
answer at the fixed times. They got a reminder SMSs every
morning and a feedback message after a successful transmission
or in the case of a mistake (for example, too many
or too few numbers). The costs of using the mobile diary as
a data collection tool consisted of the fee paid to the information
technology firm and the costs of sending text
messages (approximately 21 SMSs per person; max. 10
cents per SMS). As the participants were carrying their own
mobile phones we did not have to invest in any equipment.
Moreover, owing to the fact that the data went directly to
the database, there were no coding costs, and coding errors
were minimized.
What can a mobile diary study reveal about
spousal relationships?
Given that the participants answered the mobile diary three
times a day for one week and that both spouses rated the
aspects of their relationship, there are several alternative
routes by which to analyze the data. In this article we will
demonstrate some of the questions that can be answered on
the basis of diary data, focusing in particular on intimacy
in the spousal relationship. The question, “Please rate how
much (mental and physical) intimacy you felt regarding
your spousal relationship during this morning/evening?”
was asked in the mobile diary every morning and evening
during the week.
How do women and men evaluate intimacy
in their relationship? Do spouses share the
same feelings?
Women and men rated intimacy in their spousal relationship
at the same level. The average of all ratings was just
above the middle of the scale from 1 to 7. Feelings of
intimacy were highly reciprocal between the spouses, as the
high between-spouses correlations showed. In Larson’s
and Richards’s (1994) words, the realities of spouses were
shared in this aspect.
Does the time of day or the day of the
week make a difference?
Feelings of intimacy were higher during the weekend than
on weekdays. In contrast, intimacy did not vary according
to the time of day. The quality of spousal relationships
seemed to rise on the weekend, a time when couples
usually spend more time together and have more free time.
Is there any between-individuals variation?
Do individuals always feel the same way?
Considerable mean level differences were found between
individuals. For some participants the spousal relationship
seemed to offer more feelings of intimacy than it did for
others. On the other hand, feelings of intimacy seemed to
be highly susceptible to changing circumstances, as there
was considerable fluctuation in the momentary intimacy
scores around each individual’s mean level. That is to say,
intimacy in the spousal relationship is not a stable characteristic
of the relationship; instead, feelings of intimacy
25

International Society for the Study of Behavioural Development
Women
7 =
Very
much
Men
Mon Tues Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun
Morning
Evening
1 =
Not
at all
Mon Tues Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun
Morning
Evening
Figure 1.
Spousal intimacy during the week
within a relationship are in constant flux. Our preliminary
results show that feelings of intimacy as evaluated in a
mobile diary every morning and evening were related, for
example, to the evaluations of daily satisfaction in the
spousal relationship and success in work-family reconciliation
given during the same evening in the paper-andpencil
diary.
In addition to spousal relationships, we are currently
analyzing the daily transmission of mood between work
and family using the mobile. We have found, for example,
that among daily work experiences and moods (e.g., happiness,
efficacy, anger) stress is felt at home in a consistent
way among both women and men. Even though parents
were generally relatively happy and relaxed during the
week, tiredness was common, especially in the evening
time.
Mobile diary—A low threshold tool for
participants and researchers
On the basis of our experiences, the diary method is well
suited to gathering information about the spousal relationship,
which is characterized by constant variation in
emotions and tensions in response to the flow of daily life.
As our results show, the feelings of spouses towards each
other vary widely and thus one challenge of the research is
to find the important factors behind this daily fluctuation
and a basis for more permanent evaluations of the relationship.
As both spouses keep diaries at the same time, the
dynamic nature of the spousal relationships can be
captured in a way which is unreachable with many other
methods. The differences in partners’ reports should not be
seen as a sign of unreliability; on the contrary, these distinctions
mirror the multiple voices in families and in spousal
relationships in particular. A further advantage of the diary
method is that the role of memory bias in reporting can be
minimized since reporting occurs close to actual events and
experiences.
We find many extra benefits to be gained from using a
mobile diary to study the spousal relationship. Sending
answers about intimate feelings as SMSs increases the
perception of privacy and anonymity, as it minimizes the
possibility that others will see them. The mobile diary is a
low threshold tool for both participants and researchers
because of its familiarity and inexpensiveness. In comparison
to PDAs—which are commonly used as an electronic
diary tool—the mobile phone is easy to handle and no technical
assistance is usually needed. Like other electronic
tools, the mobile diary meets the criterion of preventing
backfilling. Moreover, researchers are able to check whether
the participants have given their answers during the time
range set (for more on backfilling see Piaseccki, Hufford,
Solhan, & Trull, 2007). Reminders can be given either
beforehand or afterwards (if the participant has not given
his/her answer in time).
During the diary week we had only few minor technical
problems, which did not impinge on the research in a
remarkable way. We think that the main reason for the
absence of technical problems is the familiarity of the
mobile phone to the participants. Moreover, because our
diary program was rarely incompatible with the participants’
mobile phones, few families had to be excluded
from our sample. According to our experiences, the main
limitation of the mobile diary method is the fact that owing
to the SMS format the space for answers is limited. Therefore,
the questions used have to be carefully designed. If
more detailed information is needed—as is usually the
case—the mobile diary should be complemented with
other methods, such as the paper-and-pencil diary and the
questionnaire.
References
Bolger, N., Davis, A., & Rafaeli, E. (2003). Diary methods:
Capturing life as it is lived. Annual Review of Psychology,
54, 579–616.
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2008 NEWSLETTER Number 1 Serial No. 53
Christensen, T.C., Barrett, L.F., Bliss-Moreau, E., Lebo, K., &
Kaschub, C. (2003). A Practical guide to experiencesampling
procedures. Journal of Happiness Studies, 4,
53–78.
Green, A.S., Rafaeli, E., Bolger, N., Shrout, P.E., & Reis, H.T.
(2006). Paper or plastic? Data equivalence in paper and
electronic diaries. Psychological Methods, 11, 87–105.
Larson, R.W., & Almeida, D.M. (1999). Emotional transmission
in the daily lives of families: A new paradigm
for studying family process. Journal of Marriage and the
Family, 61, 5–20.
Larson, R., & Richards, M.H. (1994). Divergent realities. The
emotional lives of mothers, fathers, and adolescents. Basic-
Books. A Division of HaperCollinsPublishers.
Laurenceau, J., & Bolger, N. (2005). Using diary methods to
study marital and family processes. Journal of Family
Psychology, 19, 86–97.
Piaseccki, T., Hufford, M.R., Solhan, M., & Trull, T. (2007).
Assessing clients in their natural environments with
electronic diaries: Rationale, benefits, limitations, and
barriers. Psychological Assessment, 19, 25–43.
Rönkä, A., Malinen, K., Lämsä, T., Kinnunen, U., &
Tolvanen, A. (2007). Capturing daily family dynamics
via text messages: A development of a mobile diary.
Manuscript submitted for publication.
Scollon, C.N., Kim-Prieto, C., & Diener, E. (2003). Experience
sampling: Promises and pitfalls, strengths and
weaknesses. Journal of Happiness Studies, 4, 5–34.
The Family Research Centre
The Family Research Centre is a multidisciplinary research
centre which promotes and coordinates basic and applied
family research and researcher training nationally and
internationally. Currently the FRC is occupied in organizing
the 4 th international congress of the European Society on
Family Relations (ESFR), which will take place 24–27
September 2008 in Jyväskylä, Finland. More information
about the scientific program of the congress, submission of
abstracts and registration are available at: http://www.jyu.fi/
esfr2008
Editorial
Editor Editor Copy Editing: Typesetting:
Karina Weichold Bonnie L. Barber Lucy Hahn Allset Journals & Books
Correspondence address: ISSBD Newsletter Murdoch University Scarborough, UK
ISSBD Newsletter
School of Psychology
Department of Developmental Murdoch University Production: Printing:
Psychology Perth, Western Australia SAGE Publications Ltd Page Brothers Ltd
CADS—Center for Applied 6150 Australia 1 Oliver’s Yard Norwich, UK
Developmental Science Email: b.barber@murdoch.edu.au 55 City Road
University of Jena
London EC1Y 1SP
Am Steiger 3/Haus 1
D-07743 Jena, Germany
Email: karina.weichold@uni-jena.de
27

International Society for the Study of Behavioural Development
Notes from The PresidentP
2008—another terrific biennial ISSBD meeting coming up in
Wuerzburg, Germany! Program Chair Wolfgang Schneider and
his colleagues have done an outstanding job of recruiting distinguished
invited speakers and symposia. The submitted program
promises to be equally interesting and important. The results of
the ISSBD election will be announced at the Business Meeting,
along with other significant plans. View the meeting plans
on the conference website: http://www.issbd2008.de/.
The winning 2010 conference bidders will unveil their plans
for the 2010 meeting at the end of the 2008 meeting. Robert
Serpell and his team from Africa submitted a programmatically
and logistically rigorous proposal for the 2010 meeting in
Lusaka, Zambia that impressed the 2010 selection committee.
This will be a new continent for an ISSBD meeting, providing
new opportunities for ISSBD learning and collaborations. Do
not miss this one!
International organizations like ISSBD have become more
important than ever. With globalization and many emergent
trends as background, understanding of human development
worldwide is essential for everything from commerce and trade
to war and human suffering to knowing how best to support
positive development for individuals, their families, and
communities. We have a significant opportunity in ISSBD to
surface—through our meetings and our publications—the most
outstanding and important research to inform these applications
as well as to advance developmental science.
For example, for their 2007 Development Report, the World
Bank focused on youth (This report may be accessed at
http://go.worldbank.org/N17EU24T31.). The annual World
Bank development report highlights the most significant issue
for attention in the global development community. This is an
impressive report, whose approach to programs was based on
understanding of transitions in development. While any of us
might have changed an aspect or two of the report, I was
amazed and pleased by the focus on human development and
the overall soundness of the analysis and recommendations.
Although it is challenging to try to influence policy outcomes,
the impact can be enormous.
From the scientific perspective, an example of an important
emergent trend is the cumulative body of findings coming from
brain research, and specifically the more recent hybrids like
social neuroscience (the topic of one of our 2008 ISSBD preconference
workshops.) Increasingly findings are identifying the
wholeness of human functioning, supporting the hypotheses
and previous research of some ISSBD members. Social and
environmental factors influence genes and the brain, and the
brain is the grand integrator of effects on human development.
We live in exciting times. We humans are still seriously
flawed in how we capitalize—or not—on our opportunities. We
can only hope that we will improve our capacity to learn from
science and from our history. I look forward to our exchanges in
Wuerzburg!
Anne C. Petersen, President
MAJOR CONFERENCES AND WORKSHOPS OF INTEREST
2008 July 3–6
2 nd International Congress on Interpersonal Acceptance
and Rejection
Location: Rethymno, Island of Crete, Greece
Website: www.isipar08.org
2009 April 2–4
Society for Research on Child Development Biennial
Meeting (SRCD)
Location: Denver, Colorado, USA
Website: www.srcd.org
2008 July 13–17
20 th Biennial Meeting of the International Society for
the Study of Behavioural Development (ISSBD)
Location: Wuerzburg, Germany
Website: www.issbd2008.de
2008 July 20–25
XXIX International Congress of Psychology (ICP)
Location: Berlin, Germany
Website: www.icp2008.de
2009 July 7–10
11 th European Congress of Psychology (ECP)
Location: Oslo, Norway
Website: www.ecp2009.no
2009 August 18–22
European Conference on Developmental Psychology
Location: Vilnius, Lithuania
Website: www.esdp2009.com
2008 July 27–31
XIX International Congress of the International
Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology (IACCP)
Location: Bremen, Germany
Website: www.iaccp.org
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