A Love-ly game : A study about young peoples’ apprehension of love and relationships

This essay is a part of a project called “Young peoples representation of love and relationships” and was initialized in Barcelona in January 2006. The University of Barcelona cooperates with the University college of Södertörns Högskola to compare perception of love among youths in both countries. The project focuses on teenagers between 13-19 years of age. The project uses four types of questionnaires with questions about love, feelings, empathy and relationships witch were compiled by research workers at the University of Barcelona. “A Love-ly game” is a qualitative study that is based on a questionnaire-investigation made in a Gymnasium-school in a suburb south of Stockholm. The questionnaires can be answered both in writing and by drawing but deal with the same subject. The purpose of this essay is to study a group of young people in the ages of 16-18 years old and capture their view of love and relationships. The essay will present the qualities the young people consider as the most important in a relationship and also the variety of ways these are expressed. Out of this material the author has made an interpreting analysis out of which conclusions are presented. According to respondents the most vital qualities in a relationship are honesty, trust, affection and kindness. These characteristics are expressed in different ways in relationships, depending on the persons’ idea of what love and its’ meaning is