The Quality of Late Adolescents’ Online Dating Relationships: A Peri-Pandemic Perspective

The study delves into late adolescents’ relationships peri-pandemic, examining online communication’s impact. It explores relationships’ structure, tying the quality of dating relationships to sociodemographic traits and relationship ambivalence. These facets, previously discussed individually in the literature, are consolidated into a unique model for the first time consisted of 16 independent and 10 dependent variables. The study expected a complex interplay involving gender, education, religious commitment, and cultural influences across the chosen Central and Southern European countries as Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, and Spain. A sample of 691 European late adolescents, both female (55%) and male, with an average age of 22 and who were currently or previously engaged in close relationships, was analysed. Canonical analysis was used as a main method of data process. Findings highlight the role of partnership, relationship satisfaction, ambivalence, gender, and nationality in determining the quality of online dating, love dynamics, and partner identification.