School of Social Work, Arizona State University, 411 N. Central Ave., Suite 800, Phoenix, AZ, 85004-0689, USA.
Arch Sex Behav. 2013 May;42(4):649-58. doi: 10.1007/s10508-012-0043-3. Epub 2013 Jan 8.
Typically, "non-romantic" sexual relationships are assumed to be casual; however, the emotional and social distinctions between romantic and non-romantic contexts are not well understood, particularly in adolescence. Data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health) was used to compare shared emotional (e.g., telling partner that they love her/him) and social (e.g., going out in a group) activities within romantic and non-romantic sexual relationships. Adolescents who reported exclusively romantic sexual relationships (n = 1,891) shared more emotional, but not social, activities with their partners than adolescents who were in non-romantic sexual relationships (n = 315; small effect size, r = .07-.13), akin to adolescents who experienced both relationship types (n = 519; small-to-medium effect size, r = .18-.38). Girls shared more emotional and social activities with their partners than boys when in romantic relationships (small effect size, r = .06-.10); there were no significant gender differences within non-romantic sexual relationships. Findings suggest that gendered scripts remain for sexual relationships that are romantic but not for those that are non-romantic. Notably, for the majority of adolescents, non-romantic relationships still held many emotional and social dimensions typical of romantic relationships and differences between relationship types were small. Although non-romantic relationships were less intimate than romantic sexual relationships, there was remarkable heterogeneity within this relationship type. Caution is advised when working with adolescents engaged in "casual" sexual relationships. Understanding the complexity of adolescent sexual relationships is critical for the advancement of effective sex education programming.
通常情况下，“非浪漫”的性关系被认为是随意的；然而，人们对浪漫和非浪漫情境之间的情感和社会区别并不了解，尤其是在青少年中。本研究使用来自国家青少年健康纵向研究（Add Health）的数据，比较了浪漫和非浪漫性关系中伴侣之间共同的情感（例如，告诉伴侣他们爱他/她）和社会（例如，成群结队地外出）活动。与处于非浪漫性关系中的青少年（n=315；小效应量，r=0.07-0.13）相比，报告仅有浪漫性关系的青少年（n=1891）与伴侣共享更多的情感活动，但社会活动较少（小到中等效应量，r=0.18-0.38），与经历过这两种关系类型的青少年（n=519；小到中等效应量，r=0.18-0.38）相似。当处于浪漫关系中时，女孩与伴侣共享更多的情感和社会活动，而男孩则较少（小效应量，r=0.06-0.10）；在非浪漫性关系中，性别差异不显著。研究结果表明，对于浪漫关系，性别脚本仍然存在，但对于非浪漫关系则不存在。值得注意的是，对于大多数青少年来说，非浪漫关系仍然具有许多典型的浪漫关系的情感和社会维度，而且关系类型之间的差异很小。虽然非浪漫关系不如浪漫性关系亲密，但这种关系类型内部存在显著的异质性。在与从事“随意”性关系的青少年合作时应谨慎。了解青少年性关系的复杂性对于推进有效的性教育计划至关重要。
