Latino Relationships with Romantic Partners
Relationships have been known to be a normal and regular occurrence around the world among adolescents. These relationships are mostly controlled by the guardians of these teenagers, mostly by setting rules that control and limit the actions of the adolescents. This situation, however, seems to have taken a different route in my life and among Latino teenagers generally, who mostly engage in romantic relationships, which go to an extent of having sex.
Research data obtained from The National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health indicate that a high percentage of Latino youths between the ages of 13 to 18 years have been or still are in an active romantic relationship. I am actually associated with having romantic relationships with more than one partner, while others have as many as four partners. Most of these relationships I engage in normally last for approximately three to four months.
I view these relationships to be important among to me and the Latino youths as they can have long-term effects in the social and academic life as well as the emotional health of the teens. Being in a romantic relationship is a high motivator to high self-esteem which enhances my personal life as it makes me feel special. Also, it raises my social status due to the love feeling of being close to someone, being loved and also being intimate with my partner. Increased popularity among age mates due to the intimacy in my relationships and increased online social attention, thus making me an online trend topic such as in Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, among other online platforms, is also among the main reasons of being in the romantic relationships. The relationships also help me to have a great experience in planning how to start my family. They have also been of great advantage to research scientists whose field of interest is based on youth relationships.
I mostly engage in active sex activities, such kissing as vaginal, at an early age; and those who have not, are most likely to, or are planning to engage in the act within the next six months. I am, therefore, at high prevalence rates to sexually transmitted infections, such as HIV, syphilis, and gonorrhea since I do not normally use prevention measures such as condoms. With the sexual relationship among many partners that I practice, the spread of these diseases is relatively high. I am also disposed to high unwanted teen birth rate as a major effect of these relationships since, despite the decline in pregnancy rates among teens in the United States. This is because of the avoided use of pregnancy prevention measures, such as condoms, contraceptives, and other birth control measures.
Parental relations has been known to be among the causes of romantic relationships among Latino youths. My parents try to control my relationships such as through advising me on the various relationship risks, conducting sex communication, limiting dating actions and also taking disciplinary actions when I overlook the various disciplinary standards set by them. However, these parent-child relationships in Latino are a bit inconsistent. My parents favor boys over girls, especially in relationship issues. They limit girls in relationship issues and disapprove their intimacy feelings, but allow boys to choose their partners, even without their involvement, insisting it is not their responsibilities. Hence, being a girl, I tend to be overprotected but still engage in these practices especially if they fail to take disciplinary actions on me when I go wrong, thus I have no fear of taking part in the acts.
Generally, relationships among teens is an important stage in the growth of adolescents, especially in my life. However, various control measures should be put in place especially among the high infected regions such as Latino to prevent the various effects associated with such relationships.
References
Bouris, A., Guilamo-Ramos, V., Jaccard, J., Ballan, M., Lesesne, C. A., & Gonzalez, B. (2012). Early adolescent romantic relationships and maternal approval among inner-city Latino families. AIDS and Behavior PP 1570-1583.
Rueda, H. A., Lindsay, M., & Williams, L. R. (2014). “She posted it on Facebook” Mexican American adolescents’ experiences with technology and romantic relationship conflict. Journal of Adolescent Research.