The present dissertation project investigated relationship enhancement following a brief self-disclosure task (i.e., the Fast Friends Procedure; FFP) via self-report and observational data. Thirty-three undergraduate couples dating for less than six months asked and answered questions that required increasingly higher levels of self-disclosure for…

Objective: The role of sexual attitudes has been largely ignored in explaining different emotional reactions to breakups among young adults. The authors examined the role of conservative sexual attitudes as a moderator of the relationship between breakups and depressive symptoms. Participants: Participants were 428 undergraduate students at a…

Those seeking romantic relations are increasingly using online dating sites, including young men on the autism spectrum. This study presented dating profiles with and without an explicit label of autism and positive or negative wording to 306 'females seeking a male partner'. Participants assessed the men's dating profiles in terms of perceived…

Conventional systematic reviews offer few insights into for whom and how interventions work. 'Realist reviews' examine such questions via examining 'context-mechanism-outcome configurations' (CMOCs) but are insufficiently rigorous in how evidence is identified, assessed and synthesised. We developed 'realist systematic reviews', addressing similar…

Stigmatization of overweight and obese individuals is common in interpersonal relationships. This study investigated longitudinal weight change patterns among Taiwanese adolescents and the relationship of weight change patterns with delayed romantic experience from late adolescence to young adulthood by using a representative panel survey.…

Romantic breakups are a relatively common life event for college students, with as many as 98% of young adults reporting having experienced a breakup at any point in their past (MirsuPaun & Oliver, 2017). Although the events are common, breakups have been associated with several adverse outcomes, including loneliness and social isolation…

The current study examines whether peer victimization experienced in early adolescence is associated with compromised social functioning 14 years later in young adulthood. The sample involved 1533 young adults (65.1% female, M[subscript age] = 27.06) who had participated in a large research project as middle school students (7th and 8th graders,…

Studies on the socialization of American college students indicates a pervasive trend in hookups as opposed to the traditional dating. Hookups are associated with fraternity and sorority parties in which two individuals "hook up" and have a sexual encounter without the commitment of developing a formal relationship. This research was…

Our study was guided by a developmental lens (emerging adulthood) and the theory of symbolic interaction as we attended to the meanings and definitions that contextualize expectations for engaging in hookups while attending college. Using a directed approach to qualitative content analysis, we examined first semester college men's and women's (N =…

Courtship is a fertile setting for culturally defined strategies. A common form of competition is criticizing the other group for being inadequate mates. Stories about romance between human beings and non-human participants allow such criticism. Movies about men finding mechanical partners are common. Non-human females are seen as more…

South African research on young children's constructions of social identities illuminates the significance of play in the construction of gender identities. However, what remains largely understudied are the children's construction of sexualities through play. The dominant discourse of "childhood innocence" obscures the variegated…

The purpose of this study was to examine college students' perspectives on dating a person who stutters (PWS). One hundred and thirty-two college students responded to a 19-item survey questionnaire. Survey items included questions about participants' familiarity with persons who stutter, family and/or personal history of stuttering, knowledge of…

In this study, the authors examined the potential effects of type of writing task (loss/gain vs. general prompt) on the narrative content offered by college students (N = 41) who experienced romantic breakup. Qualitative analyses indicated differences based on type of writing task. Students who received the loss/gain prompt exhibited more…

This study relies on qualitative methods to investigate Hispanic women's skin color perceptions. The primary goal is to identify the relevance of these perceptions on their beliefs about their own physical attractiveness. Thirty-four self-identified White-Hispanic women attending a large Hispanic Serving Institution in the southeastern United…

Adolescents lead enormously complicated social lives. Many youth find it difficult to keep track of their own relationships with friends and romantic interests. For the investigator, the task is exponentially more complex because overlapping and interlocking relationships and networks must be disentangled, dissected, and diagrammed. This special…