Intimate Relationship Essay

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Intimate Relationship Development During the Transition to Adulthood: Differences by Social Class Ann Meier, Gina Allen Abstract This article examines differences in young adults’ intimate relationships by social class. Lower-class adolescents are more likely to engage in intimate-relationship practices such as cohabitation, early marriage, and sexual activity that may lead to further economic and educational deprivation. Such adolescents have limited access to the special opportunities of emerging adulthood. Social class indirectly shapes the relationships of groups such as prisoners, military personnel, and sexual minorities whose memberships are highly class graded and who are subject to state-controlled relationship constraints. More research is needed on how laws and institutions constrain even the most intimate features of young lives. © Wiley Periodicals, Inc. 25 3 NEW DIRECTIONS FOR CHILD AND ADOLESCENT DEVELOPMENT, no. 119, Spring 2008 © Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com) • DOI: 10.1002/cd.207 Meier, A., & Allen, G. (2008). Intimate relationship development during the transition to adulthood: Differences by social class. In J. T. Mortimer (Ed.), Social class and transitions to adulthood. New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development, 119, 25–39. 26 SOCIAL CLASS AND TRANSITIONS TO ADULTHOOD NEW DIRECTIONS FOR CHILD AND ADOLESCENT DEVELOPMENT • DOI: 10.1002/cd Romantic and sexual relationships begin in adolescence and develop into more serious and committed relationships in early adulthood, often leading to cohabitation, joint parenthood, and marriage. On the heels of intense peer relationship development in early and middle adolescence (Brown, 1999), the late adolescent and early adult years are the period in the life course that is most occupied by social

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