For male and female adolescents, knowing one’s partner as a friend (versus being merely acquaintances) before a romantic relationship has shown to be protective against engaging in sexual intercourse.

• In an study reported in the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, the results from a national longitudinal study of adolescent health were reported. The study cites other research that notes about 80% of pregnancies among teenagers are unintended and that about 1 in 10 women ages 15 to 19 years old experience at least one unintended pregnancy. Adolescents generally lack substantial experience in romantic relationships, and as a result they may be unsure of how to initiate and conduct discussions about contraception with romantic partners. The level of familiarity between partners before romantic involvement may influence this communication and negotiation. For example, adolescents may feel more at ease in romantic relationships with partners who were already their friends or acquaintances. For this particular study, researchers used 6,658 adolescents to examine the associations between pre-romantic social ties between partners and several sexual risk behaviors. The study objective was to explore the influence of pre-existing social ties between romantic partners (i.e., knowing the partner as a friend or acquaintance before a relationship was considered “romantic” by the adolescent) on sexual risk behaviors among adolescents. The researchers found that knowing one’s partner as a friend (versus being merely acquaintances) before a romantic relationship was protective against engaging in sexual intercourse for male and female adolescents. Being friends before the romantic relationship began was associated with a lower likelihood of intercourse compared with being acquaintances for male and female adolescents. The researchers concluded that the existence and nature of an adolescent’s prior relationship with a future romantic partner has significant implications for an adolescent couple’s later sexual decisions.¹

¹Sexual Activity Among Adolescents in Romantic Relationships With Friends, Acquaintances, or Strangers, Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, Vol. 159, September 2005, pp. 849-853.

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