Perceptions of love and information sources for youngsters

In scientific research teenage partnerships are often overshadowed by the field of safe sex and prevention activities and the same is true in Slovenia. Love and partnership are the main topics that youth is talking about and they represent a risk factor and can even affect their further development. The main focus of my research is the perception of love, and information sources for youngsters, to find where adolescents search for information about love and relationships. The goal of my research was to create a baseline for a prevention program for youngsters in the field of partnership education. The perception of love has an impact on our behaviour and the way in which we see and understand love. Dysfunctional perceptions can cause relationship problems with our partners and often even make it difficult to find a suitable partner. Therefore preventive educational activities could help youngsters who are just starting to enter partnership relations, not only to improve awareness but also to prevent problems in future relationships. For the prevention program it is important that we understand where youngsters are seeking information about love and partnerships to design a program that will suit adolescents and will be effective. In the empirical part I have found that youngsters have a potentially dysfunctional perception of love and that their main source of information are their friends and the internet. There are also possibilities for further research in how the youngsters who seek information differ from those who don't