1. Objectifs

Intentions :
«The first goal of this study was to identify and describe romantic relationship patterns from adolescence to emerging adulthood. […] Our intention was to examine romantic relationship patterns at an age when most youth have begun to experience romantic relationships and when these relationships are more focused on quality and intimacy. […] The second goal was to examine whether the romantic relationship patterns identified were associated with the youth’s interpersonal experiences in the family context (e.g., family cohesion and parent–child conflict) and peer group context (e.g., peer likeability, social withdrawal, closeness in friendships and mixed-gender friendships) in early adolescence.» (p. 947-948)

Questions/Hypothèses :
«The hypothesis was that family and peer experiences in early adolescence would differentiate the various romantic relationship patterns. Specifically, higher family cohesion and lower parent–child conflict were expected to be associated with romantic relationship patterns characterized by greater stability (e.g., higher number of years with the same partners). Moreover, higher peer likeability, other-sex friendships, close friendships and lower social withdrawal were expected to be associated with romantic relationship patterns characterized by greater stability.» (p. 948)

2. Méthode

Échantillon/Matériau :
«This longitudinal study began in 2001 with 390 Grade 6 pupils (58 % girls). The sample was drawn from a dozen French-language schools in Quebec (Canada).» (p. 948)

Instruments :
Questionnaire

Type de traitement des données :
Analyse statistique

3. Résumé

«The youth in the intense involvement pattern presented a combination of positive experiences in the peer group context and negative experiences in the family context which, at first sight, is intriguing. More specifically, our results showed that these youth were particularly well liked by their classmates in Grade 6, were not socially withdrawn, and had friendship networks that included the highest proportion of other-sex peers. The transition to a mixed-gender peer network is a normative phenomenon during adolescence […]. However, the individuals in the intense involvement pattern appeared to experience this process earlier than the other youth. These results suggest that these youth were highly involved in their peer group in early adolescence, which may have facilitated greater access to potential romantic partners. Moreover, the youth in the intense involvement pattern reported experiencing more frequent conflict with their parents at age 12 than the youth in the other patterns. Two implications emerge from this finding. First, difficulties in the parent–child relationship in early adolescence have been associated with a higher level of involvement in the peer group. Second, learning to deal with interpersonal conflict in a healthy way is an important challenge during adolescence and a conflictual family environment is likely to compromise this learning.» (p. 954)