The formation of romantic relationships is an important developmental milestone for adolescents, with the majority of adolescents having had a romantic partner by the end of high school. Prior research has demonstrated that romantic relationships provide a context for various aspects of development, including identity formation, socio-emotional development, and gender role development.
Little is known, however, about the micro-level changes in adolescents' relationships and how this is predicted by personal and social influences. Furthermore, we know little about the impact of romantic relationship dynamics on academic outcomes. We hypothesize that positive adjustment in romantic relationships is beneficial for academic engagement, whereas negative adjustment in romantic relationships has cascading negative effects on academic engagement, and thus negative consequences for academic achievement. Our goal is to use the findings from the ASPIRE (Adolescents, Schools, Peers, and Interpersonal Relationships) study to formulate an intervention aimed at reducing the negative effects of adolescent romantic relationships on academic achievement.