Researching Age-Dissimilar, Romantic Couples: Trends, Concepts, and Methods

Abstract

As was discussed in the Introduction, a great deal of the media discussion surrounding age-dissimilar couplings suggests that these relationships are now more acceptable than they have been in the recent past. This view was mirrored by the people I spoke with while conducting my research, for whom this appeared to be common knowledge. Some theorists have agreed with this sentiment, suggesting that romantic relationships (and people, more generally) are decreasingly constrained by partners’ chronological ages (Bordo 1997; Featherstone 1995; Nettleton & Watson 1998). Here, age is viewed as being subject to a higher degree of individual variation and malleability than in the past, and as no longer determined by biological, social, or cultural forces.