Carmen Viejo
University of Córdoba (Spain)
CHALLENGES AND RISKS IN ADOLESCENT EROTIC-SENTIMENTAL EXPERIENCES.
Participants: Carmen Viejo; Rosario Ortega; Noemí Toledano Fernández; María Sánchez Safra; Mercedes Gómez López
Courtship and the beginning of the first sentimental relationships are relevant processes in the social life and climate of classrooms and educational centres, configuring a new axis from which new forms of interpersonal interaction of great interest to adolescents will develop. Personal variables, the direct social context of peers, as well as developmental contexts, and even historical-cultural variables would influence this process of formation of competence for sentimental relationships and intimacy (Connolly et al. 2003). Courtship can be considered a psycho-evolutionary task from whose success would derive the opportunity to develop a good management of relational competence for intimate life (Dávila et al. 2009); but it is also an important psychosocial and educational challenge, which is not alien to the risks of rude (Pellegrini, 2003) or violent behaviours (Viejo, 2014) that could be in the psychogenesis of gender violence (Ortega-Ruiz et al., 2010).
From this conceptual framework, the symposium presented here aims to deepen the analysis of the process of adolescent courtship, understood as a developmental task that is addressed within the relational system that constitutes the peer group. We start from the hypothesis that the mastery of sentimental competence plays an important role as a necessary tool for an adjusted social development in adolescence, without forgetting one of the main risks involved in this relationship: assuming violent patterns within the juvenile couple.
Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Cordoba (Spain) and member of the Laboratory of Studies for Coexistence and Prevention of Violence (LAECOVI- www.laecovi.com). The lines of research in which she works deal with interpersonal relationships in adolescence, particularly the beginning of the courtship process and romantic relationships. From a psycho-evolutionary perspective, she has made progress in the study of the risks associated with these relationships, such as dating violence, as well as their benefits and their relationship with psychological and subjective well-being during the adolescent period. She has participated in regional, national and European research projects on this and other related topics; she has published several publications in national and international journals with JCR impact, and has participated in numerous congresses and conferences. She has carried out several research stays in international centres (UK, Italy, Chile) working with various research teams, with whom she maintains international networks around the line of dating and dating violence.