What Is Considered a Long Teenage Relationship?

Maybe you've been dating someone for a while and you wonder how long your relationship might last. Generally, how long a teen relationship lasts depends on whether the teens are younger or older than 16, according to Kate Fogarty in the article "Teens and Dating," on Education.com, because older teens and younger teens are in different developmental stages. "In the early teen years, dating is more superficial -- for fun and recreation, status among peers, and exploring attractiveness/sexuality. In the older teen years youth are looking for intimacy, companionship, affection, and social support," according to Fogarty.

Teens 13 to 15 are likely to have short-term relationships that last less than five months, Fogarty says. "Young teens usually hang out with peers who are the same gender as they are. As teens reach the mid-teen years (age 14-15 years), they start having relationships with peers of the opposite sex," Fogarty adds. Teens in middle school who date can develop poor study habits, as they try to balance their commitments with the emotional ups and downs that romantic relationships bring, says Barbara Greenberg, Ph.D., in the Psychology Today article "Middle School Dating Is Bad?"

By age 16, relationships last an average of two years, writes Fogarty. Most long-term relationships do not occur early, and during the teen years, you are likely to see group dating, according to Melanie Greenberg, Ph.D., in the article titled "The Neuroscience of Relationship Breakups," in Psychology Today. Long-term relationships happen when both people are self-assured and self-confident, Greenberg adds.