Editing Going steady (section)

==Adult opinions==
The trend of going steady was met with concern and disapproval by adults. A 1951 book, ''Profiles of Youth'', called going steady "a national problem", and said teens' greatest concern was "whether to go steady".<ref name="cart">{{Cite book|title=Young adult literature : from romance to realism|last=Cart, Michael|isbn=9780838914762|edition= Third|page=16|location=Chicago|oclc=945729948|date=2016}}</ref> Some parochial schools forbid the practice after Catholic leaders declared "going steady is a [[Occasion of sin|proximate occasion of sin]]".<ref name="spurlock" /> Advice columnist [[Dorothy Dix]] wrote, "The custom has all of the worst features of marriage and none of its advantages." Another syndicated columnist, [[Antoinette Donnelly|Doris Blake]] wrote "It's simply a pernicious habit grown out of we-don't-know-what that has fostered this ridiculous custom of a couple of 16, 17, or 18 year olds pairing off to the exclusion of everyone else on the dance floor."<ref name="weigel" /> ''[[Life (magazine)|Life]]'' magazine featured an article on the subject, noting that 65% of students in some high schools were going steady,<ref name="Inc1957">{{cite book|author=Time Inc|title=LIFE|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UT8EAAAAMBAJ|date=9 September 1957|publisher=Time Inc|issn=0024-3019}}</ref> and a column in ''[[Boys' Life]]'' discussed the issue.<ref name="Inc1967">{{cite journal|author=Boy Scouts of America, Inc.|title=Boys' Life|journal=Boys' Life. Inkprint Edition|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Jve-6Dnm4YkC&pg=PA24|date=November 1967|publisher=Boy Scouts of America, Inc.|page=24|issn=0006-8608}}</ref>

The primary concern with going steady was the perception that it would lead to greater intimacy and sexual experimentation than casual dating. According to Breines, "Although the social scientific surveys indicate little evidence of a dramatic increase in sexual intercourse among teenagers in the postwar period, adults believed there was such an increase."<ref name="breines" /> Both white teens and girls of color tended to limit their sexual activity to steady relationships. Reliable data on teen sexual behavior pre- and post-war is sparse, and historians argue whether the rate of premarital intercourse rose gradually or sharply through the 1960s. Rates of premarital pregnancy and data about venereal disease in teens over the years suggest that increasing numbers of teenagers were engaging in sexual intercourse.<ref name="bad" /> A study in the 1990s found that there was a greater association between early sexual activity and going steady than with frequent casual dating.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Cooksey |first1=Elizabeth C. |title=Friendships and Early Relationships: Links to Sexual Initiation among American Adolescents Born to Young Mothers |journal=Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health |date=May–June 2002 |volume=34 |issue=3 |pages=118–126 |doi=10.2307/3097710 |jstor=3097710 |pmid=12137125 }}</ref> A 2004 study also found that the majority of adolescents first have sex when going steady. Studies conflict on whether going steady had more association with use of birth control or less.<ref name="karney">{{Cite book|title=Adolescent romantic relationships as precursors of healthy adult marriages: a review of theory, research, and programs|date=2007|pages=15, 22, 65|publisher=RAND Corp|author=Karney, Benjamin R.|isbn=9780833041784|location=Santa Monica, CA|oclc=137331441}}</ref> Littauer states "Being in love and going steady was more significant to a young woman's decision to have sex than was class, education, religion, or any other factor."<ref name="bad" />

A secondary concern was that going steady would inhibit teens' social development.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Peisner |first1=Eugene O. |title=A Methodology Built about the Going Steady Issue |journal=Marriage and Family Living |date=May 1961 |volume=23 |issue=2 |pages=192–194 |doi=10.2307/347741 |jstor=347741 }}</ref> Experts warned that going steady would limit one to inadequate experience getting to know different people and could result in bad choices. A YWCA publication said a steady relationship would "reduce your opportunities for knowing other congenial people whom you might enjoy."<ref name="spurlock" /> Although some experts criticize going steady as limiting a person's exposure to potential partners, "playing the field" results in only superficial exposure to those potential partners. According to Herman, "quantity and variety of experience is not necessarily a good substitute for quality, in the sense that going steady may allow more thorough and penetrating learning processes to occur."<ref name="herman" />

By the late 1960s, the sexual revolution of the [[Counterculture of the 1960s|counterculture]] was the new fear of adults, and going steady had become more accepted.<ref name="spurlock" />