Review of Related Literature and Studies
Before going into the main variables of the study, the researchers discuss in first part why adolescents involve on romantic relationships and how these relationships contribute in the growth and development of adolescents. In the next part, the researchers talk about the connection of independent variables in this study such as the romantic relationship which involves time, motivation and anxiety. These three variables which are involved in romantic relationship affect the academic performance of individuals involved in a romantic romantic relationship. In the last part of the chapter, the researchers try to evaluate previous studies related to the topic of this study.
Humans particularly adolescents involve in romantic relationships with variety of reasons. According to Aristotle humans are “social animals” which made them long to form an intimate relationship in which love can be given and received freely which the psychologists called “the need to belong” (Myers, 2010). Rest assured of the love and care given by the persons close to them, they are secured with the trust and confidence that they are acceptable to individuals whom they can depend for the satisfaction of their needs. Raman (2010) stated that being in romantic relationship involves physical contact which causes chemical arousal to the persons involved. Koob & Bloom (1982) also explained this by stating that the individuals who are in love release a number of chemicals within the brain such as oxytocin, vasopressin and endorphins which cause “short-term” joy and pleasure.
On the other hand, According to Arnet (as cited in Fincham & Cui, 2011) "late adolescents" is the stage where teenagers experienced how to be totally and socially independent. This is the time for curiosity & explorations. Curiosity about choosing and having a partner, and explore this kind of curiosity that somehow leads to romantic relationship. But this kind of relationship is really not for a settling type. This is just a sort of their way in finding who they really are and what they really want in their life in a particular period of time.
Consequently, “half of all teens have been in a dating relationship and nearly one third of all teens have been in a serious relationship” as reported by the Teenage Research Unlimited (cited in Luqman, 2009). According to Furman (2002), romantic relationships become more and more significant to adolescents in their social world as they also develop from puberty towards late adolescence. This show how prevalent is romantic relationship among adolescents.
Luqman (2009) says that adolescent relationships play an important role to adolescents as it develops the ability for committed relationships. Additionally, Pelt (2004) said that those relationships help develop personality. She also added that it is a way of knowing your opposite sex and helps you in choosing the right life partner. Moreover, researchers theorized that romantic relationship is essential to the development of adolescents in different aspects such as “transformation of family relationships, close relationships with peers, sexuality, and career planning” (Furman, 2002).
An article of Barber & Eccles (as cited in Luqman, 2009) talks about the importance of romantic relationships to adolescent development and its “long lasting” effects on self-confidence. It affirmed that romantic relationship teaches moral values on romance, “intimate relationships and sexuality”. In addition to this, healthy romantic relationship could possibly benefit student’s education (Phelps, 2007). It provides positive outlook of adolescents’ life which motivates the adolescents in achieving goals such as performing well in the studies. According to Zulueta & Maglaya (2004), “motivation constitutes the degree of an individual’s behavior as manifested by his interests, attitudes, and aspirations to satisfy his desired goal. It is an urge to satisfy goal object” (p. 212). Provided a positive romantic relationship, adolescents would strive hard on performing well in studies to bring a brighter future in their relationship.
According to Lucas & Curpuz (2007), “quality personal relationships that provide stability, trust, and caring such as romantic relationships can increase learners’ sense of belonging, self-respect and self-acceptance, and provide a positive climate for learning” (p. 16) and thus increase academic performance. According to the theory of incentive approach of motivation, the desirable properties of external stimuli – whether grades, money, affection, food, or sex – account for person’s motivation.
Moreover, theorists suggested that romantic relationship has a great role in the academic performance of adolescents. Lucas & Corpuz (2007) states that Vygotsky’s ideas about “cognitive development” have become major influences in psychology and education today. They added that Vygotsky’s socio-cultural theory suggests social interaction as a very significant part in learning. Parents, peers, and partners, on the other hand, cooperate, collaborate and enrich the learning experience (Lucas & Corpuz, 2007). In this way, adolescents who are more knowledgeable can help in the cognitive development of their partner.
However, romantic relationships do not always behave in a positive way. There are instances in which romantic relationship may harm adolescents and because of this, they need adults who will guide them in developing healthy relationships (Luqman, 2009). In the same vein, Connolly & Johnson (cited in Weichold & Barber, 2008) said that even though romantic relationship plays an important role in the development of an adolescent, most romantic relationship in the adolescence stage last for only 6 months to 1 year. This situation implies frequent break-ups and these cause anxiety among adolescents. Monroe et. al (as cited in Furman, 2002) affirmed that breakups are mostly the cause of depression among adolescents. Furman (2002) also states that adolescents are mostly prone to problems in adjustment when they involve in romantic relationships at an early stage of their adolescent life. Nevertheless, he said that there are also instances in which “adolescents who are not well adjusted more likely to become prematurely or overly involved in romantic relationships than their better adjusted peers” (Furman, 2002).
In another way, romantic relationship gives more negative effects on the academic performance of adolescents. Teens nowadays consider romantic relationship as the number one source of stress (Manning et al., 2009). It results from the break-ups or conflicts with partner. Even those who give more importance on academics, spending time with one’s partner may also serve as a distraction. Myers (2010) also said that:
For university students, relationships consume much of life. How much of your waking life is spent talking with people? One sampling of 10,000 tape recordings of half- minute slices of students’ waking hours (using belt-worn recorders) found them talking to someone 28% of the time – and that doesn’t count the time they spent to someone (Mehl & Pennebaker, 2003). In 2008, the average American 13-17 year-old sent or received 1742 text messages per month (pp. 393-394).
This time spent with the partner would consume much time that must be allotted for studying.
Considering the time management of a student, romantic relationship affects the academic performance. As stated by Crissey (2006) in her study about impact of romantic relationship in high school girls, there is really a challenge in "balancing romantic relationship and academic performance" in a teenager's life. It gives pressure on how to maintain the romantic side and the academic works as well. She also pointed out that there is more than the pressure someone will going to feel if there is a competition inside the classroom for the academic awards at the end of the school year.
Crissey (2006) then added that having a romantic affair especially when you are just a student would not just give a "source of stress" but also a disturbance. Having a romantic relationship is really disturbing because a student will deal on managing time between the school and in the romantic side that somehow leads to give academic works a lesser priority.
Stress is a continuous feeling of worry about work or personal life that prevents someone from relaxing. Campbell, as cited by Crissey (2006), says that stress is a condition or effect that is bad and can cause some problems. For example, students who are having any romantic affair will have a higher percentage of stress than those who don't have because instead of focusing to their academic work and academic stresses, they also commit their time to their relationship.
Morris & Maisto (1995) added that anxiety which can be taken from “internal and external forces” brings about stress. They also described how someone or something frustrates individuals when it stands between them and their goals. This would cause a dilemma on “irreconcilable demands, opportunity, needs or goals”. They added that “delays, lack of resources, losses, failure and discrimination” are the primary cause of aggravation.
On the other situation, negative effects of romantic relationships is very evident in the report of Namaganda (2009) that “developing feelings of love, two weeks before exams can lead to lack of concentration during the time a learner should be revising and thus failure” (para. 6). Thus, Gastone Byamugisha (as cited in Namaganda, 2010) a psychologist and lecturer at Kyambogo University said that heart-break is not the only cause of student’s failure in exams.
Moreover, Furman, Brown & Feiring (1999) stated in their book entitled “The Development of Romantic Relationships in Adolescence” that romantic relationship at an early age is the cause of higher rates of drug use, minor delinquency, and psychological or behavioral difficulties, as well as lower levels of academic achievement that those who are not currently involved in a relationship or who delay romantic activity until later in adolescence.
In conclusion, relationships and academics can’t be joined together. On one side, the student is spending time with his/her lifelong partner, but on the other side, the student is busy trying to fulfill other responsibilities in school like making projects, studying, and maintaining grades.
On the other hand, studies about romantic relationship and its effects to academic performance revealed different results.
The study of Luqman (2009) on romantic relationship and its effects on academic performance, identity and self-esteem revealed that there is no relationship on the grade point average and the dating status of adolescents. The variables he considered were dating status, intimacy, self-worth and personality status. However, in his methodology, he only considered the students’ grade in the latest exam. This would make his data less accurate because initial level academic performance of the respondents was not recorded. The purpose of having an initial level of academic performance is to have a comparison of before and after situations which will predict whether the academic performance of the respondent has increased or decreased during the course of romantic relationship. He then suggested that initial levels of academic achievement of students should be considered in the future research about romantic relationship and its effects to academic performance to get more accurate results.
Pham’s (n.d) study about effects of romantic relationships on academic performance of college students revealed the same result with Luqman’s (2009) study.
Moreover, an investigation on the effect of premarital sex among Bohol Island State University (BISU) – Candijay Campus female students was conducted by Balaba, Betos, Galvadores, Felisco & Atupan(2008). There were 25 early (unmarried) mothers which were the respondents of the study. Average grades of the respondents before and after having a child were compared and the researchers discovered that academic performance was not significantly affected by the engagement in premarital sex. Nevertheless, results of the study showed that the respondents found it hard to concentrate on their studies because of the problems they met being early parents. The limitation of this study is that they did not include those students engaged in premarital sex who are not early mothers. These students may have different behavior towards academic performance from those students who are early mothers.
On the other hand, relationship between dating status and academic achievement on grades 8, 9 and 10 in Santa Clara University in California were studied by Quatman, Sampson, Robinson and Watson (2001). The result of the study showed that higher frequency in dating would imply a lower academic performance. It is because most of the romantic experiences showed higher levels of depressive symptoms and lower levels in academic motivation. However, this study focuses on younger population. The results may not be the case in the more mature age group.
In another study, a dissertation of Crissey (2006) focused on the differences of gender on the high school academic outcomes which were influenced by romantic relationships. The study found out that when students divided their attention to education and romance, there was a negative outcome on the academic performance especially when they take too much concern on their romantic relationships. This situation occurs mostly on girls because of the “school romantic climate where romance is more valued. On the other hand, the study showed that boys’ “academic well-being” is being slightly affected. The increased risk of sexual activity mainly affects this situation (Crissey, 2006). However, data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (as cited in Allen, 2010) revealed a different result in which males’ academic performance is negatively affected by the romantic climate.
A dissertation of Stefan (2006) which is a qualitative study on the impact of romantic relationship on the academic performance of high school girls applies merely on the western culture. Results of the study showed that there is really a “social pressure” for teenage girls who are involved in dating. She also found out this societal pressure means that girls are engaged in this kind of dating situation merely “because of some influences peers, magazines, televisions”, etc. Sometimes, if a girl don't engage herself in dating, some may considered her as "weird", maybe because in the western society today, there's no more thing such as Maria Clara's, or those that are a little bit conscious/ really don't engage in dating as well as romantic relationships. She said that majority of the people would expect girls to already have a dating partner especially when girls reach into their adolescent stage. She also added that this dating is usually considered as a threshold or the first step towards romantic relationships. After conducting her study, she concluded that dating/romantic relationships have "negative and positive" outcomes into the academic performance of someone involved – positive in the sense that this dating thingy gives inspiration/motivation for girls to do well in their academic works, if and only if girls will know how to manage time wisely and properly and that girls will not take dating seriously. However, it is negative on the other hand because it will just cause "distraction".
Phelps (2007) studied about the influence of partners, parents and peers of African American Youth to their school achievement. He considered dividing the samples by race and he found some difference that each variable influence to the romantic relationship for the Anglo and African American sub-samples. He concluded that effects of academic achievement vary on race. Part of the result of his study is that peers also affect to the academic performance of the respondents. For the African American, it is their peers’ academic orientation that affects the academic performance while for Anglo Americans, both peers’ academic orientation and behaviors towards romantic relationship affects their academic performance.
The result of the study of Phelps (2007) implies that factors assumed to affect academic performance of students such as personal relationships vary in each race.
Moreover, Furman (2002) stated that there has still been a great interest of romantic relationships because this interest sparks from the observation that these relationships are significant to adolescents’ lives. A lot of research have been made about this topic but most of these studies center on Euro-American youths or mostly Western societies. Western culture has differences to Asian culture especially on the social aspects. Example would be perceptions on dating.
Western culture has differences to Asian culture especially on the social aspects. Example would be perceptions on dating. To the researchers’ knowledge, we haven’t found some studies focusing on the Asian’s romantic relationships.
In connection with this, our study will focus on the effects of romantic relationship to the academic performance of Filipino students particularly, in the University of the Philippines. Since we have known that teachers in UP Cebu have higher expectations to their students, increased workloads, challenging exercises, projects and assignments are given to the students. This notion is also supported by Manning, Giordano, Longmore, &Hocevar (cited in Cui & Fincham, 2011) which state that college is the time when studies are more stressful than before. It is also characterized by a shift of sleeping and eating habits, more school-related works and new responsibilities (Umar, Shaib, Aituisi, Yakubu, & Bada, 2010). Additionally, Chickering (as cited in Pham, n.d) states that serious development stage for young adults is signified by college life. Considering the romantic relationships involved and the amount of pressure given to the students by their teachers, we assumed that there will be an effect to the academic performance of the students.
