“¿Y tu novio? Where’s Your Boyfriend?”: A Cultural-Ecological Analysis of Latinas’ Narratives of Teen Dating Experiences

There is a dearth of research examining the dating experiences of Latina teens—a large and rapidly growing population in the U.S. that reports high rates of teen dating violence. The purpose of this qualitative research was to explore Latinas’ teen dating experiences and the familial and sociocultural factors that impact them using a cultural-ecological perspective. Twenty-five first-, second-, and third-generation immigrant Latinas between the ages of 18 and 23 participated in the research. A purposive sample was drawn from the New York City (NYC) metropolitan area. We applied a critical narrative inquiry methodology to conduct in-depth narrative interviews with participants, following protocols approved by the IRB. We employed an inductive and iterative analytic process that combined holistic- and categorical-content approaches to identify themes within and across narratives. We identified the following themes: (1) cultural expectations and norms, (2) parents’ rules and expectations, (3) covert relationships, and (4) violence and control. This study’s findings highlight the importance of considering the cultural-ecological context in examinations of Latina teens’ dating experiences, with particular attention to how gendered power dynamics shape Latina teens’ dating experiences across multiple levels.