Romantic Relationship Development: The Interplay Between Age and Relationship Length
Publication Date
9-1-2017
Document Type
Article
Organizational Units
College of Arts Humanities and Social Sciences, Psychology
Keywords
Dating, Romance, Romantic relationships, Relationship length, Relationship quality
Abstract
The present study explored how romantic relationship qualities develop with age and relationship length. Eight waves of data on romantic relationships were collected over 10.5 years during adolescence and early adulthood from a community-based sample in a Western U.S. city (100 males, 100 females; M age Wave 1 = 15.83). Measures of support, negative interactions, control, and jealousy were derived from interviews and questionnaire measures. Using multilevel modeling, main effects of age were found for jealousy, and main effects of relationship length were found for each quality. However, main effects were qualified by significant age by length interactions for each and every relationship quality. Short relationships increased in support with age. In comparison, long-term adolescent relationships were notable in that they were both supportive and turbulent, with elevated levels of support, negative interactions, control, and jealousy. With age, long-term relationships continued to have high levels of support, but decreased in negative interactions, control, and jealousy. Present findings highlight how the interplay between age and relationship length is key for understanding the development of romantic relationships.
Copyright Date
9-1-2017
Copyright Statement / License for Reuse
All Rights Reserved.
Publication Statement
Copyright is held by the American Psychological Association. User is responsible for all copyright compliance. This article was originally published as:
Lantagne, A., & Furman, W. (2017). Romantic relationship development: The interplay between age and relationship length. Developmental Psychology, 53(9), 1738-1749. https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0000363
Accepted Manuscript is openly available through the "Link to Full Text" button.
The published Version of Record is available at libraries through Compass or Worldcat.
Rights Holder
American Psychological Association
Provenance
Received from CHORUS
Language
English (eng)
Publication Title
Developmental Psychology
Volume
53
Issue
9
First Page
1738
Last Page
1749
ISSN
1939-0599
Recommended Citation
Lantagne, A., & Furman, W. (2017). Romantic relationship development: The interplay between age and relationship length. Developmental Psychology, 53(9), 1738-1749. https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0000363