Perceptions of Romantic Relationships Among Low Income Urban African-American Adolescents- Findings from Mobile Youth Survey

Background: Research on adolescent peer relationships among African Americans typically focuses on negative outcomes such as rates of sexual activity, pregnancy, HIV, and STIs. But positive outcomes in the domain of romantic relationships also exist. Here, we examined how characteristics of adolescent development (i.e., general self-worth, feelings of hopelessness, and ability to communicate) affect perceptions of romantic relationship, using a sample of African American adolescents living in low income neighborhoods.

Method: The sample consisted of 2351 adolescents (10-18 years) from the ninth wave (2006) of the Mobile Youth Survey, a multi-cohort longitudinal study of African American youth who were recruited from low income neighborhoods of Mobile, Alabama. Using a GLM framework, we estimated models of romantic relationship based on two different dependent variables, self-worth and positive beliefs about one's partner, while incorporating controls for age, gender, hopelessness, traumatic stress, types of communication outlets, and relationship status.

Results: Our findings indicate self-worth and positive beliefs about the qualities of boyfriends or girlfriends are predicted by age, level of general self-worth, hopelessness, communication with neighbors, teachers, and friends, and relationship status. As respondents aged, their perceptions of relationships became more negative. Communication dealing with worry and secondary traumatic stress was positively related.

Conclusion: Positives as well as negatives in every relationship exist, but previous research has typically neglected examining the positives among African American adolescents. The study findings provide information for researchers and health professionals on strategies to address psychosocial factors impacting normative adolescent romantic relationships who live in low income neighborhoods.