title: The importance of adolescent dating relationships.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  In recent years, an increasing number of studies have emerged that contribute to the explanation of the development and consolidation of adolescent romantic relationships. In this regard, Collins made a significant contribution to the previous models focusing on different stages; his proposal is focused instead on the meaning of each stage for adolescents. In attempting to find empirical support for this model, this paper analyses these couples' characteristics at a deeper level; all the areas identified by Collins were considered together: involvement, content, quality of the couple, and cognitive and emotional processes.
  
  
  METHODS
  3,258 adolescents (48.6% males) in Andalusia were surveyed, selecting those who had a dating relationship at that time (N= 1,202). Cluster analysis and predictive discriminant analysis were run.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The results indicated four distinct groups of adolescent couples, which were different not only in the participants' age, but in all the dimensions analyzed.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These results are discussed in terms of the significance of these variables for adolescents when defining their romantic relationships.
authors: Universidad de Córdoba, Spain. z72vialc@uco.es
authors: Carmen
authors: C
authors: Viejo Almanzor
authors: Virginia
authors: V
authors: Sánchez Jiménez
authors: Rosario
authors: R
authors: Ortega Ruiz
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D003380:Courtship / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male