Adolescents' Development of Romantic Friendship and Change in Favorite Leisure Contexts

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Abstract
Hopes for successful dating for the year ahead, the actual state of romantic friendships, and preferred leisure contexts were assessed for a German sample of male and female students in early and middle adolescence. Data were collected twice, with a 1-year time interval. Using confirmatory prediction analyses, hypotheses concerning the association between transition to dating and change in preferred leisure contexts were tested. Novices in dating were expected to prefer home and neutral settings throughout the year or to change to public, development-enhancing places by the second time of measurement. More experienced adolescents were expected to prefer public, development-enhancing places throughout the year or to fall back on home and neutral settings. Results showed that frustrated hopes for romantic friendship led to a retreat from public contexts. A desire for romantic friendship increased the use ofpublic contexts where one could meet members of the other sex. The use of public settings reflects adolescents' attempts to gain control over friendship development.
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