The relationship of steady dating to self-esteem and sex role identity among adolescents.

It was hypothesized that adolescents who have steady dates, compared to those who do not, would be perceived by their peers as possessing the following: higher self-esteem, self-perception of higher self-esteem, higher correspondence to their gender's identity, and self-perception of higher correspondence to their gender's identity. A questionnaire was developed and randomly distributed among 480 adolescent boys and girls in Ramat Hasharon, Israel. The research used a 2 (lack or existence of steady date) X 2 (sex of perceived adolescent--boy or girl) X 2 (sex of subjects) X 3 (subjects' grade level--8th, 10th, or 12th grade) factorial design. Analyses of variance results supported the four hypotheses. In addition, the steady-dating factor was found to be significantly more important to male than to female subjects. The research suggests a positive link between steady dating and self-esteem and sex role identity but offers no definitive conclusion on the qualitative aspects of steady dating.