Chapter 6: Intimate Relationships

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About this Chapter
People begin exploring their ideas and feelings about romantic love in adolescence. They may experience infatuation, crushes, attractions, or even their first love. In many societies, the process of developing relationships that lead to marriage begins at this time as well. But few adolescents have thought clearly about the qualities that are important to them in a long-term partner or even what they would consider a healthy relationship, how to begin one, or how to get out of a relationship that is not healthy. And they usually receive very little adult guidance, even from their parents.

Some relationships are not healthy. Assessing a relationship objectively, and especially concluding that it should end, is difficult for everyone, but it can be especially confusing for teens. Young people often misinterpret or ignore signs of serious relationship problems, making them vulnerable to emotional or physical abuse or exploitation. Power imbalances frequently go unquestioned—they may even be socially sanctioned or encouraged—and very often affect young girls. In many countries, poverty leads young women to develop relationships with older men of means—so-called sugar daddies—which are usually highly unequal. In the context of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, older men may also seek out young girls because they believe that they are free from infection or even that sex with a virgin will cure HIV.

Unhealthy, unequal relationships put young women in particular at high risk of physical abuse, forced sex, unwanted pregnancy, and STIs, including HIV. Participants should learn how to recognize the signs of an unhealthy relationship and develop the communication skills necessary to avoid or end it.