Despite the old adage that "love is ageless," new Canadian research suggests that boys and girls who start dating at a young age may disrupt the typical pattern of romantic development and increase their risk of school and behavioral problems, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Set to be published this December in the Journal of Adolescence, the latest study on young romance looked at groups of children who started dating early, or at the average age of 11.6 years, as compared to 12.9 for "on-time teens" and an average age of 14.9 for the so-called "late bloomers." Twenty percent of the participants had started dating as young as ages 10 to 12, while 25 percent began in their late teens.
Researchers from York University in Toronto collected questionnaires yearly from their participants from 1996 to 2003. In total, 698 students were asked about their romantic development and general behavior each year.
Those who started dating early were twice as likely to develop behavioral problems as compared to those who began "on-time" or later in adolescence. Lying, cheating, truancy, picking fights and running away constituted disruptive behaviors, and early-starting children were more likely to report personality traits such as shyness, depression, and aggression.
Meanwhile, late-blooming children began an accelerated path towards exclusive relationships from casual dating with no adverse effects. About 55 percent of participants were classed as "on-time" teens.
Why might early relationships be detrimental to children? Researchers concluded that when entering into a relationship early on when ill-prepared and without the appropriate support of peers, adolescents may have more have difficulty dealing with the stress of a typical couple. Early-starters were also found to be more likely to drink alcohol and engage in unsafe sex.
