1. What is a healthy relationship?

2.  Why do we fall in love?  Love adds richness to our lives  Love is different for parents, family, friends, and significant others  Ability to feel romantic love develops during adolescence

3.  Love has 3 main qualities:  Attraction, closeness, and commitment  Attraction- the “chemistry” part of love  Closeness- the bond that develops when you share thoughts and feelings  Commitment- promise or decision to stick with the person  Can be combined in different ways for different relationships  Closeness without attraction is like a best friend  Attraction without closeness is like a crush  Attraction and closeness combined is romantic love  If commitment develops the relationship will last. If not, it will end. Some high school relationships last, many don’t.

4.  After the initial attraction, closeness develops  Ways closeness develops are by:  Learning to give and receive  Revealing feelings  Listening and supporting

5.  Not enough time to give to the relationship  Life takes you on separate paths  Priorities change  Moving on  The end of a relationship can be painful  Seek support  Time

6.  What makes a healthy relationship?  Mutual respect  Trust  Honesty  Support  Fairness/equity  Separate identities  Good communication

7.  Mean, disrespectful, controlling behavior  Warning signs- Does you boyfriend/girlfriend:  Get angry when you don’t drop everything for them?  Criticize the way you look or dress?  Keep you from your friends or talking to members of the opposite sex?  Want you to quit an activity you love?  Ever raise a hand when they are angry like they are going to hit you?  Try to force you to go further sexually than you are comfortable with?

8.  http://kidshealth.org/teen/your_mind/relati onships/love.html#  http://kidshealth.org/teen/your_mind/relati onships/healthy_relationship.html#