Dating and Relating

Scope of the Pathfinder

This pathfinder explores the world of teenage dating relationships. From the mirage of sources, we have pulled out the most informational sources we’ve found on this subject. Our pathfinder explores the biological, psychological and historical aspects of dating.

Start Here, Researchers

Some places that will start you off on your research are some of the more general resources. This could include using online databases to get some background on the topic.

Print Resources

300.3 Tak Reference. Taking Sides: Psychological Issues.

Examines psychological issues in the world today concerning sexuality, personal relationships, and evolutionary genetic factors. Provides an overview of modern health and brain issues.

305.23 Rol Rollin, Lucy. Twentieth-Century Teen Culture by the Decades.

Discusses the history of dating customs from the 1900’s to the 1990’s. The rituals and habits of changing American culture is broken up by decades, and then assessed. These customs are compared and contrasted, to find the continuing trends and traditions in human behavior patterns, as well as the changes that come with social and political changes.

395 Mar Martin, Judith. Miss Manners’ Guide to Excruciatingly Correct Behavior.

Presents letters and answers on proper dating etiquette dating back to 1938. This provides information on past behaviors relating to dating patterns. Compared with other research as well as our knowledge of current patterns, this book can be used to help find the instinctual roots to certain conduct.

Online Databases

EBSCOhost

Big Chalk Library

Lundy, Brenda; Field, Tiffany; McBride, Cami; Field, Tory; Largie, Shay. “Same-sex and opposite-sex best friend interactions among high school juniors and seniors.”

This is a study that compares the intimacy level between relationships of the same-sex and the opposite-sex. The study found that same-sex relationships were much more comfortable and intimate than opposite friendships.

Theriault, Jocelyne. “Assessing intimacy with the best friend and the sexual partner during adolescence: the PAIR-M inventory.” The Journal of Psychology.

This paper discusses use of the Personal Assessment of Intimacy in Relationships-Modified (PAIR-M) to study adolescent relations with friends of both genders. The study used a specially designed questionnaire to examine emotions in adolescents.

CQ Researcher

Specific Online Resources

Dating and Courtship in Modern Society

This page discusses the changes in dating between in the past 80 years. It examines societal gender roles and how they have influenced dating and courtship. The biological factors behind love, attractiveness, sex drive, and production of hormones are also observed.

Predictors of Adolescent Sexual Attitudes: The Influence of Individual and Family Factors

This page explains a study conducted to determine influences on the sexual attitudes of teenagers. The influences analyzed are characteristics such as age, gender, self-esteem, and religious participation. The study also analyzed family characteristics in relation to sexual attitudes.

Society for Neuroscience: Brain Briefings on Pheromones

The Society for Neuroscience examines the effects of pheromones, biological influences on sexual attitudes in many species, on humans.

Social Basis of Human Behavior: Sex

This work examines historical aspects of dating through the 20^th century. Trends in dating and sexual relationships were observed, and then researched to find biological reason for the actions.

Keywords and Phrases for Searching

Adolescence

Courtship

Dating rituals

Sexuality

Premarital relationships

Additional advice and categories to study

If you still want to go more in depth with this topic, there are other places to look. Our tip is to check out online databases, and psychology journals would probably be the most informative source. This topic is very interesting and these sources should give a good overview of teenage dating culture. There are also other related topics that one could research to get a broader picture. This could include all dating relationships, other types of relationships such as mother-child, friendly, etc. One could also research homosexuality, marital and pre-marital relations, divorce, rape, and incest. These topics are related to teenage dating culture and would give one a broader picture.

Merritt Edlind

Sarah Smith

Kira Deutch

Andrew Cohen

Suzanne MacFarland

April 23, 2002