Romantic Relationships among Immigrant Adolescents

Lin Wang, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

This research examines the characteristics of immigrant Adolescents' romantic relationships in terms of racial/ethic similarity, with regard to who dates inside/outside of their racial groups, paying particular attention to what is behind these characteristics. Attention is especially directed toward language use, generation, religiosity, and attractiveness as the most important aspects influencing romantic relationships. Since the majority of recent immigrants in the U.S. consist of Asians and Hispanics, the research will concentrate on these two groups. A sample of whites and blacks is also included as a comparison group. I use the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health) WAVE III data to describe these romantic relationships among adolescents and I compare the romantic relationships across different generations of immigrant adolescents. The statistical model I used is logistic regression with robust standard errors. This research will implicate their future marriage pattern.