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Background: The types and qualities of adolescent romantic relationships have been shown to be related to STI risk-reducing behavior such as condom use. However, the classification of types of relationships has been quite limited (e.g., main versus causal).
Objectives: To develop a more complex typology of adolescent relationships.
Methods: Females (14 to 21 years) participating in a microbicide acceptability study were asked about their partner relationships including weekly phone calls, 3 face-to-face interviews. The interviewer wrote a narrative describing knowledge learned through the course of their interactions with participants. At the three and six month interview, participants described up to three relationships from each of the last three months. Based on these descriptions, researchers developed a typology of 6 types of relationships.
Results: Of the girls that had a three and/or six month interview, 167 had at least one sexual relationship that could be classified. Participants had a mean age of 17.77 years; 38% were African-American, 35% were Hispanic, and 27% were Caucasian. Over the course of the study, 93 had one partner, and 74 had more than one partner. These participants identified a total of 316 separate relationships that were broken down into 6 distinct categories: boyfriend (n = 210), baby’s father, (n= 6) friends with benefits (n = 70), sexual partner (n = 12), ex-relationship (n = 8), and client/one-night stand (n = 10). The differences between these relationships with examples will be presented.
Conclusions: These results suggest most adolescents’ partners would be considered boyfriends, but other types of relationships do exist. Further research can examine these types of relationships, how relationships change over time, and their implications for STI risk reduction
Implications for Programs, Policy, and/or Research:Developing more complex typologies of adolescent relationships may be helpful in communicating with teenagers and developing more targeted prevention strategies that consider partner type.