Introduction
Research Questions
- How do teens’ romantic relationship skills, knowledge, and attitudes change with age?
- What predicts (1) differences in teens’ romantic relationship skills, knowledge, and attitudes and (2) their changes with age?
- How do differences in teens’ romantic relationship skills, knowledge, and attitudes—and their changes with age—relate to later relationship experiences?
Healthy marriage and relationship education (HMRE) programs for youth provide youth education on relationships through classroom-based curricula. Commonly used curricula cover topics such as knowing when you are ready for a relationship, understanding the difference between healthy and unhealthy relationships, avoiding teen dating violence, communicating effectively, and managing conflict. Some but not all curricula provide information on decision making about sexual activity and ways to avoid teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections.
However, teens also receive information on romantic relationships from many other sources, including their friends and families, the Internet, classmates, social media, and through their own relationship experiences. In addition, the participants in an HMRE program for youth might start the program with differences in their baseline relationship skills, knowledge, and attitudes. For HMRE programs to have their intended effects, curriculum developers and program providers need evidence on which relationship skills, knowledge, and attitudes teens are likely to develop on their own, and which can benefit from the support of an HMRE program.
Purpose
This report describes findings from an analysis of how teens’ romantic relationship skills, knowledge, and attitudes change with age. The analysis was based on longitudinal survey data collected from 595 high school students who participated in an impact study of an HMRE program in two Atlanta-area high schools. For this analysis, we used data for only students randomly assigned to the impact study’s control group. The report highlights key findings from the analysis and discusses their implications for HMRE programming and research. It also documents the study data, sample, and methods. The study was conducted by Mathematica as part of the Strengthening Relationship Education and Marriage Services (STREAMS) evaluation for the Administration for Children and Families in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Key Findings and Highlights
- For seven of the eight measures included in the analysis, we found that teens’ relationship skills, knowledge, and attitudes changed from when they were in middle adolescence to when they were in late adolescence. For most of the measures, the direction of the change aligned with the intended outcomes of common HMRE curricula. For about half of the measures, teens also differed from each other in how fast or slow the changes took place.
- Some of the teens’ demographic and personal characteristics predicted their initial relationship skills, knowledge, and attitudes in middle adolescence, but they did not consistently predict how teens’ skills, knowledge, and attitudes changed with age. Therefore, teens who started off lower or higher on these measures likely retained their relative position compared to their peers.
- Of the eight measures included in the analysis, perceived conflict management skills and one of two measures of attitudes toward adolescent sexual activity most consistently predicted teens’ subsequent relationship experiences during late adolescence.
Methods
As part of a random assignment impact study of an HMRE program in two Atlanta-area high schools, students completed three rounds of surveys: (1) a baseline survey administered at study enrollment, (2) a one-year follow-up survey, and (3) a three-year follow-up survey. For the analysis in this report, we combined data from these three surveys for 595 students assigned to the study’s control group. Most of the data captured youth ages 14—18, corresponding to when they were 9th through 12th grade students. We used the longitudinal data to estimate a series of mixed-effects growth models, a type of regression model appropriate for estimating change in individual outcomes over time. We also calculated predicted values from these models to examine the association between the predicted values and students’ relationship outcomes at the time of the study’s three-year follow-up survey.
Recommendations
For HMRE curriculum developers and program providers, the study findings highlight the importance of identifying and addressing the romantic relationship skills, knowledge, and attitudes most in need of intervention. Our results suggest that even without intervention, many of teens’ relationships skills, knowledge, and attitudes are likely to change with age in the direction intended by HMRE programs. HMRE programs can further support teens’ development by (1) identifying and addressing the specific skills, knowledge, and attitudes teens are less likely to develop on their own and (2) helping teens develop their relationship skills, knowledge, and attitudes at an earlier age or faster rate than they would on their own.
Results from this study also highlight the importance of accounting for teens’ varying levels of relationship skills, knowledge, and attitudes. We found that teens enter high school with different relationship skills, knowledge, and attitudes based on their demographic and personal characteristics. For some of these skill, knowledge, and attitude measures, we also found that they change at different rates. This finding raises the possibility that different types of program content might resonate with some youth more than others; youth might have different interests and needs in the education they receive; and HMRE programs might affect youth in different ways, thus making it important to account for possible variation in impacts across youth. HMRE curriculum developers and program providers should account for this possibility when they design and implement HMRE programs.
Citation
Emily Forrester, Jessica F. Harding, and Brian Goesling (2022). How do teens’ romantic relationship skills, knowledge, and attitudes change with age? OPRE Report #2022-309, Washington, DC: Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.