Abstract
Digital technology and social media platforms have transformed the ways adolescents communicate and cultivate romantic relationships, but few studies consider whether relationships initiated online are less salutary than those formed in person. A sample of 531 adolescents (Mean age = 16.7 years, SD = 0.358; 55% female) was recruited from an ongoing birth cohort study and administered bi-weekly diaries over a year to evaluate the circumstances associated with adolescents’ romantic relationship formation and relationship quality. Two-thirds of respondents initiated one or more romantic relationships during the study, of which 15% were initiated online. Girls who did not fit in well at school and who had difficulty making friends were more likely to initiate romantic relationships online than their more sociable peers who fit in well at school; for boys, however, access to mobile devices increased the odds that romantic relationships were initiated online. The diaries captured considerable flux in the evolution of romantic relationships, but there was limited evidence that relationships initiated online involved greater risks, with the notable exception of greater age asymmetry.
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Acknowledgements
The authors acknowledge institutional support from the Office of Population Research and the Survey Research Center at Princeton University, and technical Assistance from Cara Carpenito and Dawn Koffman.
Authors' Contributions
M.T. contributed to the conception of the study and drafted the manuscript; R.E.G. contributed to the conception and design of the study, supervised data collection and relationship coding, and collaborated on data analysis and writing; J.R.W. coded the diaries into the Qualtrics platform, prepared the relationship code, constructed the individual and relationship analysis files, and prepared statistical analyses for a first draft. All authors approved the final manuscript.
Funding
The authors acknowledge financial support from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) of the National Institutes of Health under award numbers R01HD36916-13-G, R01HD39135, and R01HD40421 and Princeton University’s Program on U.S. Health Policy.
Data Sharing and Declaration
The FFCWS survey data used in this study are available at the Office of Population Research Data Archive hosted by Princeton University. https://opr.princeton.edu/Archive/FF/ The mDiary data will be made available at a future date.
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This study has been approved by Princeton University’s Institutional Review Board (IRB certificate #7214).
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Informed consent and assent were obtained by the Princeton University Survey Center using either signed consent forms or verbal parent consent and teen assent. Parent consent was attained before soliciting assent from adolescents.
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Tienda, M., Goldberg, R.E. & Westreich, J.R. Adolescents’ Partner Search in the Digital Age: Correlates and Characteristics of Relationships Initiated Online. J Youth Adolescence 51, 393–408 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-021-01557-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-021-01557-2