What Do Teenage Boys Want in a Relationship?

Based on movies like American Pie, I’ll hazard a guess that most people would immediately answer, “sex” to this question. Interestingly enough, a study published in the Journal of Adolescence undertaken by the State University of New York at Oswego found that eighty percent of the teen boys responding to the survey (all in grade ten, mostly 16 years old) said the prime motivator for starting a relationship was because they liked the person. Of course sexual attraction was a factor; it tied with wanting to get to know someone better as reason #2 for starting a relationship.

After taking a quick peek at the study results, I found that the researchers tried to cover their bases by asking other, related questions that had easily-found statistical references to use as touchstones – meaning they asked the boys questions that other studies had shown to be relatively stable (such as how many boys of this age are sexually active – approximately 40% in North America) to compare the answers with. If the “stable” statistics matched, then the probability that the answers to the questions about relationship motivations were accurate increased.

But you tell me: do you think today’s teenage boys are more motivated by romance than sex to start a relationship?

Related Content: Relationship Motivations & Expectations

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