The teenage love: Do Spanish early-middle adolescents believe in the romantic love?

Abstract

Romantic beliefs are associated to attachment anxiety, acceptability of abusive relationships and justification of violent behavior. Adolescence is a crucial stage for the consolidation of identity. The aim of this study is to analyze the myths of romantic love and examine gender differences among 448 Spanish early-middle adolescents (M = 12.92; SD = 0.85) that were attending the first and second year of the Spanish secondary education. The Myths, Fallacies and Misconceptions about Romantic Love Scale by Luzón et al. (2011) was administered in the classrooms during tutoring hours and was supervised by a group of psychologists. Results showed that out of the total of 18 myths of romantic love in the evaluation, the average number that the adolescents said they believed in was 9.03 (SD = 3.13). The highest scores were obtained in factors named “Love implies possession and exclusivity” and “True love is predestined”. The better-half myth, the myth of jealousy and the idea of love between couples is the fundamental reason behind the existence were the most frequent beliefs. Statistically significant gender differences were found. Adolescent males reported that they believed in a higher number of myths of romantic love and obtained the highest percentages in most beliefs in myths. Findings show shows that biases and fallacies related to romantic love have already been formed in early adolescence and that appears differentially according to gender. These results can be useful in the planning and design of preventive programs