“I Know What Love Means”: Qualitative descriptions from Mexican-American and White Adolescents

Purpose: Researchers and practitioners are concerned about the negative consequences associated with sexual behavior among youth, yet little is known about the relationship context in which these behaviors occur. Both boys and girls are very involved in the exploration of intimacy during early and middle adolescence and take the notion of love quite seriously (Montgomery & Sorell, 1998). Boys report being in love, endorsing love at first sight, and falling in love at earlier ages (Montgomery, 2005, Montgomery & Sorell, 1998) yet little is known on the meaning romantic love holds. Even less understood are cultural contexts of adolescent love. The present study uses a qualitative approach to explore the meaning of love for Mexican-American and White adolescent girls and boys.

Method: White (n = 34) and Mexican-American (n = 48) adolescents (M = 16.01 years, SD = .82; n = 44 girls) within the Southwest US who were transitioning into the 10th through 12th grades (M = 11.09, SD = .76) were recruited. Adolescents had a range of 0 through 20 dating relationships (M = 3.52, SD = 3.12) with their longest relationship ranging between 0 and 2 years (M = 8.00 months, SD = 9.39). The average number of times adolescents reported being in love was .95 (SD = 1.05). 37% of mothers had a high school diploma or less. Adolescents responded in writing to an open-ended question, “What does it mean to be “in love” with someone? Describe below and give examples if needed.” Two coders analyzed the data via a form of inductive content analysis into themes that emerged from the data, rather than from a pre-existing conceptual framework (Miles & Huberman, 1994; Morgan, 1993). QSR Nvivo (i.e., a qualitative software program, Gibbs 2002) was used to analyze participants' responses by sorting recurring themes or conceptual ideas into meaningful categories (Krueger & Casey, 2000).

Results: Three major categories emerged: how love relates to 1) self, 2) partner, and 3) the relationship. Within each of these categories, love was described as an emotion (e.g., caring, trust, comfort, safety/security, happy, exclusivity, attraction), a cognition (e.g., knowing, thinking, acceptance), and an action (e.g., do anything, communication, be there, friendship). For example, one adolescent stated that being in love means “to know that you would do anything for them and that they would do anything for you.” This statement describes love as an action for both the self and the partner. This contrast with love as only related to self, “You'd do anything to make them happy and anything to be with them”. Differences that emerged across ethnicity and gender are noted.

Conclusions and Implications: Adolescents vary in the degree to which they believe mutuality plays in romantic love. Adolescents' conceptualization of love may have significant implications for health promotion strategies, as those who assign more attributions to the self may be more likely to place their partners needs and desires above their own. Future research is needed that examines sexual risk taking within the context of love.