ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Personality and Social Psychology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1489208
This article is part of the Research TopicContemporary Issues in the Study of Adolescent Gender DevelopmentView all 3 articles
What is a healthy dating relationship and what helps it get there? Perceptions of Chilean adolescents from a gender and inclusivity perspective
Provisionally accepted
Christianne Zulic-Agramunt1,2*
Ana Poo-Figueroa2
Gabriel Gatica-Bahamonde3,4
Nicolás Salazar2Andrea Saldana2
Bastian Carter-Thuillier5,6,7
Carles Perez-Testor1- 1Ramon Llull University, Barcelona, Spain
- 2University of La Frontera, Temuco, Araucania, Chile
- 3Sección de Psiquiatría del Niño y del Adolescente, División de Neurociencias, Facultad de Medicina, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, Chile
- 4Department of International Health, Institute of Care and Public Health Research, Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences, Maastricht University, Maastricht, Netherlands
- 5Department of Education, University of Los Lagos, Osorno, Chile
- 6Faculty of Education, Catholic University of Temuco, Temuco, Chile
- 7Faculty of Education and Social Sciences, Andrés Bello University, Santiago, Chile
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Relationships are often the focal point of life and can have a positive or a negative impact on a child's or adolescent's development, thus understanding the traits of healthy dating relationships may benefit well-being during this period of life and into adulthood. In this transversal study, a sample of 65 adolescents between 10 and 19 years of age were recruited from schools in Araucanía and metropolitan regions of Chile during 2023, and they were distributed into 10 focus groups stratified by gender and age. A qualitative methodology with a phenomenological approach was used. Content analysis was performed stratified by age group (10-14 years, 15-19 years) and gender identity. Information was obtained from adolescents about what they considered a healthy relationship, making distinctions between different types of unhealthy relationships and capturing subtleties about what they considered protective and risk factors. The adolescents were not mere consumers of information; they required commitment and support in their development processes. Listening to their own voice could help generate solutions that made more sense to them. In the view of an adolescent, the formation of romantic couples was a fundamental and important issue that should be considered in public policies that promote health and prevent dating violence and its consequences.
Keywords: Healthy relationships, Dating violence, adolescents, Protective factors, Risk factors
Received: 17 Dec 2024; Accepted: 12 Jun 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Zulic-Agramunt, Poo-Figueroa, Gatica-Bahamonde, Salazar, Saldana, Carter-Thuillier and Perez-Testor. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Christianne Zulic-Agramunt, Ramon Llull University, Barcelona, Spain
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