title: Listening to the voices of important others: how adolescents make sense of troubled dating relationships.
abstract: Nearly one third of adolescents experience dating relationship maltreatment. Grounded theory methods were used to explicate a typology of ways by which adolescents incorporate views of others in making sense of their troubled dating relationships. Interviews with 90 young adults (ages 18-21 years) who had troubled adolescent dating relationships were analyzed using constant comparative techniques. A typology of ways in which adolescents "listen to the voices of important others" emerged. The six ways were "preventing challenging voices of important others," "deflecting irksome voices of important others," "succumbing to demanding voices of important others," "soliciting confirming voices of important others," "considering cautionary voices of important others," and "heeding knowing voices of important others." Professionals can use this model when deciding how to offer input about troubled adolescent dating relationships.
authors: College of Nursing, Kent State University, Kent, OH 44242, USA. dmartsol@kent.edu
authors: Donna S
authors: DS
authors: Martsolf
authors: Claire B
authors: CB
authors: Draucker
authors: Lucy C
authors: LC
authors: Bednarz
authors: Joshua A
authors: JA
authors: Lea
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D003380:Courtship / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008297:Male; D000297:Psychology, Adolescent; D012307:Risk Factors; D014754:Violence / Q000523:psychology; D055815:Young Adult