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Abstract

Attitudes formed in adolescence create a foundation for family-formation decisions in adulthood. Drawing on qualitative interviews with fifty American adolescents, this article details five relationship-relevant factors that emerge in the teens’ discussions of their relationship views. These are personal communication style, divorce acceptance, relationship efficacy, preferred family-formation timing and sequencing, and romantic relationship examples seen growing up. There is systematic variation in the teens’ views along these factors, which cluster together into distinct relationship orientations that range in their skepticism of romantic relationships in general and marriage specifically. These relationship orientations among adolescents are compared with those in previous research on college student samples. The importance of these findings for adolescent-focused relationship education is discussed.

Keywords

conceptions of adulthood emerging adulthood family relationships romantic relationships

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Unlikely Optimists,Skeptics,and Believers

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Keywords

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