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Challenges in Charting the Course of Romantic Relationships in Adolescence and Emerging Adulthood

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Early Adulthood in a Family Context

Part of the book series: National Symposium on Family Issues ((NSFI,volume 2))

Abstract

The emergence of research on romantic relationships in adolescence and in emerging adulthood raises the question of how these relationships are similar/different across the two developmental periods. Giordano and colleagues (Chap. 9) provide useful information on this question. This commentary elaborates on the two contexts that inform their work, the prevalence of cohabitation, and casual sex. It is argued that contemporary romantic relationships lack the clear, universal progression of previous generations and data are provided to show that many contemporary relationships begin with a physical encounter or hook up. Several challenges in understanding romantic relationship development are also discussed. These include the need for dyadic research, the use of appropriate analytic tools to deal with interdependence in the data, and attention to the issue of measurement invariance to show that measures are functioning in the same way for males and females and across people in different phases of development.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Family Institute, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL, USA

    Frank D. Fincham Ph.D.

Authors
  1. Frank D. Fincham Ph.D.
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Correspondence to Frank D. Fincham Ph.D. .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sociology, Justice, Pennsylvania State University, Oswald Tower 513, University Park, 16802, Pennsylvania, USA

    Alan Booth

  2. Bowling Green State University, 239 Williams Hall, Bowling Green, 43403, Ohio, USA

    Susan L. Brown

  3. Pennsylvania State University, Oswald Tower 601, University Park, 16802, Pennsylvania, USA

    Nancy S. Landale

  4. , Departments of Sociology and Demography, Bowling Green State University, 239 Williams Hall, Bowling Green, 43403, Ohio, USA

    Wendy D. Manning

  5. The Pennsylvania State University, 601 Oswald Tower, University Park, 16802, Pennsylvania, USA

    Susan M. McHale

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Fincham, F.D. (2012). Challenges in Charting the Course of Romantic Relationships in Adolescence and Emerging Adulthood. In: Booth, A., Brown, S., Landale, N., Manning, W., McHale, S. (eds) Early Adulthood in a Family Context. National Symposium on Family Issues, vol 2. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-1436-0_10

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