Individuals create both personal and culturally shared meaning through narratives; however, sparse research has explored the specific ways in which individuals might use such cultural narratives in creating meaning from developmentally important experiences. In this study, we examine how emerging adults narrate positive romantic relationships, both because emerging adulthood is critical for the development of intimacy and because romantic relationship narratives are pervasive in cultural media. Thematic analysis of 31 narratives from mostly European-descent students attending a private liberal arts university in the Southeast US (mean age 19; 16 self-identified females) revealed three major narrative arcs, Love Grows, Firecrackers and Fairytale, which varied in coherence, coda, and mutuality of the relationship, but did not differ by gender. Further examination and discussion of these narratives suggest how emerging adults are making sense of their first romantic relationships in ways that inform efforts to educate and intervene to promote healthy and positive relationships.

中文翻译：

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 其实是爱


个人通过叙事创造个人和文化共享的意义;然而，很少有研究探讨了个人可能以何种具体方式使用这种文化叙事从重要的发展经历中创造意义。在这项研究中，我们研究了新兴成年人如何叙述积极的浪漫关系，这既是因为新兴的成年期对于亲密关系的发展至关重要，也因为浪漫关系叙事在文化媒体中无处不在。对 31 个叙事进行主题分析，这些叙事来自美国东南部一所私立文科大学，主要来自欧洲血统的学生（平均年龄 19 岁;16 名自我认同的女性），揭示了三个主要的叙事弧线，即 Love Grows、Firecrackers 和 Fairytale，它们在关系的连贯性、尾声和互惠性方面有所不同，但不因性别而异。对这些叙述的进一步检查和讨论表明，新兴成年人如何理解他们的第一次恋爱关系，从而为教育和干预的努力提供信息，以促进健康和积极的关系。