Friends and Lovers: The Role of Peer Relationships in Adolescent Romantic Relationships

Psychologists have long been interested in the influence of parent-child relationships on subsequent relationships. Much less attention has been given to how friendships and peer relationships may also affect other relationships. Certainly, the critical contributions of peer relationships to psychosocial adjustment have been documented (see Hartup, 1983), but we know surprisingly little about their impact on other relationships.