Do conflict resolution and recovery predict the survival of adolescents' romantic relationships?

PLoS One. 2013 Apr 17;8(4):e61871. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0061871. Print 2013.

Abstract

Numerous studies have shown that being able to resolve and recover from conflicts is of key importance for relationship satisfaction and stability in adults. Less is known about the importance of these relationship dynamics in adolescent romantic relationships. Therefore, this study investigated whether conflict resolution and recovery predict breakups in middle adolescent couples. Couples who are able to resolve and recover from conflict were expected to demonstrate a lower probability of breaking up. In total, 80 adolescent couples (M age = 15.48, SD = 1.16) participated in a 4-wave prospective questionnaire and observational study, with one year between measurements. In addition to self-report measures, adolescents were observed in real-time during conflicts with their partners. Multilevel Proportional Hazard analyses revealed that, contrary to the hypothesis, conflict resolution and conflict recovery did not predict the likelihood of breakup. Survival differences were not attributable to conflict resolution or conflict recovery. More research is needed to consider the unique relationship factors of adolescent romantic relationships to determine why some relationships survive while others do not.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adolescent
  • Adult
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Interpersonal Relations*
  • Love*
  • Male
  • Negotiating*
  • Proportional Hazards Models
  • Self Report

Grants and funding

T. Ha was supported by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO, grant Mozaiek 017.003.006). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.