Breaking Up Is Hard To Do Summary

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Young and Broken-Hearted Faith Cavazos Texas A&M International University Young and Broken-Hearted “You'll get over it,” one might be told by their high school friend after a break-up. Some might believe romantic relationships that occur early in life, are frivolous and silly. These relationships, that seem to be all for naught, should be easy to let go of, but are they? And, what does it take for the young and broken-hearted cope? Matthew Larson and Gary Sweeten bring to light the repercussions of breaking up for young adults by measuring crime involvement and substance use in their article Breaking Up Is Hard To Do: Romantic Dissolution, Offending, And Substance Use During The Transition To Adulthood (Larson …show more content…

To begin with, Larson and Sweeten pose a few interesting questions. They set out to find how breaking up affects unmarried young adults, but the effects that will be recognized are limited to crime and substance use (Larson & Sweeten, 2012, p. 606). This is a goal that helps formulate questions that can later be answered at the end of recording data. The main general question they are looking to answer is as follows “Is romantic dissolution associated with increases in the prevalence or intensity of offending?” (Larson & Sweeten, 2012, p. 606) . This shows that they will be measuring crime. Likewise, the correlation between breaking up and substance usage will be taken into account (Larson & Sweeten, 2012, p. 606). This shows that they will be measuring different substances that each individual used. Moreover, in order to develop hypotheses, Larson and Sweeten did some extensive research to help guide the study. They took note of the ideas from “general strain theory (Agnew, 1992), the age- graded theory of informal social control (Laub and Sampson, 2003; Sampson and Laub 1993), and delinquent …show more content…

After reviewing on the bond during romantic relationships of young adults and the coping mechanisms of breaking up, they linked together crime and breaking up (Larson & Sweeten, 2012, p.606-10). In fact, they found the condition of the bond is life shaping due to long exposure to their partner, which can positively or negatively influence crime participation, substance usage and mental health especially after breaking up (Larson & Sweeten, 2012, p.606-10). This shows that all the components they want to observe are related. The research done was necessary in putting the methods together strategically, so it applies to the questions appropriately. They decided to use “selection-on-observables strategy (Heckman and Hotz 1989), which means data is to be taken on the individuals from a specific sample after they experience a natural occurring break up (Larson & Sweeten, 2012, p.617). This shows the exact method they are going to apply to their study and how they are going to collect their data. Because they were the correct age (18 to 23) for the study, the sample chosen was from “waves 6 and 7” of the “ National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997” where they were interviewed yearly (Larson & Sweeten, 2012, p.612). Wave 6 interviews, which acts as the control, was where the relationship data was collected and wave 7 interviews was where the crime, drug,

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