Dating During Adolescence

Adolescents are still trying to find themselves. Their perspective and how they look at themselves develop their self-esteem. According to Erik Erikson, adolescents go through the psychosocial crisis of identity versus role confusion, which involves exploring who they are as individuals. Social pressures are high during the identity versus role confusion stage. Teens feel pressured from their parents to get into a good school or start working, while also feeling pressure from friends and even relationships. Because of the pressures of the identity versus identity confusion stage, Erickson suggested that adolescents have the opportunity to try on multiple identities and/or roles before firmly committing to one, this is known as psychological …show more content…
Dating also depends on ethnicity and race. For example, parents in some cultures might feel negative towards their kids dating and rather them have an arranged marriage instead. True intimacy is becoming more common during later adolescence. The age in which sexual intercourse begins depends not only on the teen but also on the racial and ethnic differences. Timing depends on socioeconomic conditions, cultural values, and family structure. Sexual orientation is determined by who you are attracted to. During adolescence, we determine if we are heterosexual, homosexual, or bisexual. Sexual orientation can make it more difficult to develop a relationship since there is constant judging and bullying from others. It makes it harder to build and keep a relationship when everyone is looking at you and talking about you like if it was something bad to like someone from the same sex. Homosexuals and bisexuals face a lot of challenges when dealing with sexual orientation, dating, and