Trust Relationships

study, Telling It Like It Is: Teen Perspectives on Romantic Relationships, concentrated on African American and Latino teens, on the basis that these groups have relatively higher levels of early sexual activity, teenage childbearing, and STIs.

"Our findings suggest that both mentoring and teen pregnancy prevention programs may benefit from incorporating discussions and activities on how to build healthy romantic relationships," said Lina Guzman, Ph.D., lead author of the study. "The teens in our study know what they want in a relationship, but they either don’t know how to get it or don’t believe it is realistic."

In a report on teenage perspectives on romance, researchers found that a majority of US teens have been involved in a romantic relationship, and view respect as a key element of successful relationships. According to the study, girls tended to view fidelity as a key element of respect.

Teenage girls also characterised honesty, communication, caring, attentiveness, and responsibility as important elements of healthy relationships. Focus groups of teen boys listed sex as one of the top elements of a healthy romantic relationship. Sex was not mentioned in the teen girl groups.

However, the study also found that while teenagers expressed high hopes for relationships while also expressing pessimism about their expectations of ever having a healthy relationship, at least during their teen years.

According to the report’s authors, the overwhelming consensus was that "healthy qualities were atypical and not characteristic of the average teen relationship.”

A lack of fidelity was mentioned by all groups as something that is common among teens, in contrast to the “absence of cheating” that they listed as a good or healthy quality.

All of the teen girl focus groups spoken to by the researchers cited cheating almost immediately as a typical dimension of teen relationships and noted that this experience contributed to their low expectations for finding a healthy relationship.

Physical abuse was cited by all groups as something that is common in teen relationships, although teens were quick to distinguish between “play-fighting” and violence. Playfighting was listed as something that was commonplace, with both teen boys and teen girls reporting that the girls were just as likely to initiate this sort of fighting.

According to the report, teens felt that having few role models contributed to their low expectations for healthy romantic relationships. Some teen girls specifically referred to the absence of fathers as a primary example of the lack of positive role models.