Editing Going steady (section)

==Definitions==
A survey of college students in 1955 found a distinction between "going steadily" with someone, which indicated dating the same person repeatedly, and "going steady" which indicated a formalized or explicit agreement.<ref name="herman">{{Cite journal |last=Herman |first=Robert D. |date=1955 |title=The "Going Steady" Complex: A Re-Examination |journal=Marriage and Family Living |volume=17 |issue=1 |pages=36–40 |doi=10.2307/346777 |issn=0885-7059 |jstor=346777}}</ref> Going steady often involved an exchange of clothing or jewelry which would be worn to announce the state of the relationship.<ref name="spurlock" /> Couples might exchange identification bracelets or "friendship rings".<ref name="profile">{{cite book |last1=Daly |first1=Maureen |title=Profiles of Youth |date=1951 |publisher=Curtis Publishing Company |edition=First |pages=27–34}}</ref>

Sociologists include group recognition of the couple's status as part of the definition of going steady.<ref name="herman" />

According to ''A Girl's Guide to Dating and Going Steady'' (1968), a couple are going steady when they were "seeing each other exclusively one or more times a week for a fairly long period of time."<ref name="guide">{{cite book |last1=McGinnis |first1=Thomas C. |title=A Girl's Guide to Dating and Going Steady |date=1968 |publisher=Doubleday & Company |pages=165–180 |oclc=440150}}</ref> Another researcher defined it as "the stage when both partners come to a mutual implicit understanding that dating will exclude others."<ref>{{cite journal |last1=McCabe |first1=Marita |last2=Collins |first2=John |date=Nov 1984 |title=Measurement of Depth of Desired and Experienced Sexual Involvement at Different Stages of Dating |journal=The Journal of Sex Research |volume=20 |issue=4 |page=378 |doi=10.1080/00224498409551234 |jstor=3812194}}</ref>