Editing Public display of affection (section)

== Adolescent==
[[File:Couple at the Pantheon in Rome.jpg|thumb|A young couple indulging in public in Rome]]
Relationships outside the family become increasingly important during adolescence. Although several studies of basic social processes have been conducted by sociologists,<ref>{{cite book|title=The Adolescent Society: The Social Life of the Teenager and its Impact on Education.|last1=Coleman|first1=J. S.|date=1961|publisher=Greenwood|location=Westport, CT}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last1=Waller|first1=W.|year=1937|title=The rating and dating complex|journal=American Sociological Review|volume=2|issue=5|pages=727–734|doi=10.2307/2083825|jstor=2083825}}</ref> much of the research and theorizing about adolescent relationships has been carried out by developmental psychologists. Much more research has been done in the area of specific adolescent behaviors, which has shown that these behaviors are predicted well by relationship variables to include the display of affection.<ref name="ReferenceB">{{cite journal|last1=Giordano|first1=P. C.|last2=Cernkovich|first2=S. A.|last3=Holland|first3=D.|date=2003|title=Changes in friendship relationships over the life course: Implications for desistance from crime|journal=Criminology|volume=41|issue=2|pages=293–328|doi=10.1111/j.1745-9125.2003.tb00989.x}}</ref>
 
Affection or intimacy references a pattern of conduct within relationships that includes subjective assessments of attachment. This pattern of conduct is a part of a larger constellation of factors that contributes to an adolescent's development of a non-parental relationship. Sociologists have explored the more general terrain of gender relations, although several of the key studies focus on preadolescence and early adolescence.<ref>{{cite book|title=Peer Power: Preadolescent Culture and Identity.|last1=Adler|first1=P. A.|last2=Adler|first2=P.|date=1998|publisher=Rutgers University|location=New Brunswick, NJ}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=School Talk: Gender and Adolescent Culture.|last1=Eder|first1=D.|last2=Evans|first2=C. C.|last3=Parker|first3=S.|date=1995|publisher=Rutgers University|location=New Brunswick, NJ}}</ref><ref name="ReferenceC">{{cite journal|last1=Merten|first1=D. E.|date=1996|title=Going-with: the role of a social form in early romance|journal=Journal of Contemporary Ethnography|volume=24|issue=4|pages=462–484|doi=10.1177/089124196024004004|s2cid=144845466}}</ref><ref name="auto">{{cite journal|last1=Simon|first1=R. W.|last2=Eder|first2=D.|last3=Evans|first3=C.|date=1992|title=The development of feeling norms underlying romantic love among adolescent females|journal=Social Psychology Quarterly|volume=55|issue=1|pages=29–46|doi=10.2307/2786684|jstor=2786684}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last1=Thorne|first1=B.|last2=Luria|first2=Z.|date=1986|title=. Sexuality and gender in children's daily worlds|journal=Social Problems|volume=33|issue=3|pages=176–190|doi=10.1525/sp.1986.33.3.03a00020}}</ref> Their work highlights the degree to which features of these early relations, and even intense personal feelings such as being in love, are socially constructed. Adolescents' conceptions about and conduct within these relationships are heavily influenced by interaction and communication with others.<ref name="auto" /> Specific rules emerge (e.g., one should always be in love, it is wrong to date more than one person) and gossip or other social sanctions serve as important sources of informal social control around these rules.<ref name="ReferenceB" />
 
Research moves into the early adolescent period when youths are old enough to say they are [[going steady]] and is useful in actually characterizing the nature of these relationships. These liaisons are described as highly superficial and based on unrealistic idealised expectations. Furthermore, the desire of adolescents to put on a good "front" inhibits the development of intimacy. Going steady is a limiting factor on the adolescent social ritual.<ref name="ReferenceC" />

This table<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Vaquera|first1=E.|last2=Kao|first2=G.|date=2005|title=Private and Public Displays of Affection Among Interracial and Intra-Racial Adolescent Couples|journal=Social Science Quarterly|volume=86|issue=2|pages=484–508|doi=10.1111/j.0038-4941.2005.00314.x}}</ref> below shows the quality and context of displays of affection in American adolescence among intra-racial couples:
 
{| class="sortable wikitable"
|-
! Behavior !! Percentage
|-
| Held hands|| 89.90
|-
| Said to others they were a couple|| 85.76
|-
| Went out together alone|| 78.00
|-
| Went out together in a group|| 78.40
|-
| Met partner's parents|| 75.91
|-
| Gave partner a present|| 72.08
|-
| Received present from partner|| 76.25
|-
| Told partner that they loved them|| 82.05
|-
| Partner said that they loved them|| 79.69
|-
| They thought of themselves as a couple|| 90.88
|-
| Kissed|| 91.56
|-
| Touched under clothing or with no clothes on|| 62.78
|-
| Touched each other's genitals|| 53.68
|-
| Had sexual intercourse|| 42.40

|}

Boys and girls begin the process of relating to one another, the transition is much easier for adolescent males, who essentially transport their dominant interaction styles (derived from peer interactions) into this new relationship form with the opposite sex. Public displays of affection may facilitate the demonstration of this dominant interaction style transference in a socially acceptable way.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Maccoby|first1=E.|date=1990|title=Gender and relationships: a developmental account|journal=American Psychologist|volume=45|issue=4|pages=513–520|doi=10.1037/0003-066x.45.4.513|pmid=2186679}}</ref>

Experimental research on communication processes observed in same- and mixed-gender groups to support this idea. Although behavior observed in cross-gender task groups is relevant, intimate dyadic relationships and task groups are not equivalent social contexts. Thus, an alternative hypothesis is that boys, who have less practice than their female counterparts with PDA (by virtue of their peer group experiences), must make a larger developmental leap as they move into the heterosexual arena. For example, examining the messages students write one another in high-school yearbooks,<ref>{{cite book|title=Sociological Studies of Children and Youth|last1=Giordano|first1=P. C.|last2=Longmore|first2=M. A.|last3=Manning|first3=W. D.|date=2001|publisher=Elsevier|location=New York, NY|pages=111–139}}</ref> there were marked differences between boys' discourse directed towards friends (e.g., "you're a lousy wrestler…") and that directed towards romantic partners (e.g., "you are very beautiful in so many ways, it would take me a lifetime to express them in words…"). In contrast, young girls' use of language in messages to close friends and boyfriends is more similar in form and content. To the degree that the romantic context provides their only opportunity to express themselves and, more broadly, to relate in this intimate fashion, young males are more dependent on these relations than female adolescents, who have close friends for intimate talk and social support. This uniqueness figures into the [[aetiology]] of more negative and sometimes gendered relational dynamics that also emerge in connection with romantic involvements stalking, intrusive control efforts, violence, and the like.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Hagan|first1=J.|last2=Foster|first2=H.|date=2001|title=Youth violence and the end of adolescence|journal=American Sociological Review|volume=66|issue=6|pages=874–899|citeseerx=10.1.1.515.3673|doi=10.2307/3088877|jstor=3088877}}</ref>