Risk and protective factors for the socio-affective adjustment and violent behaviours in the adolescent couple context

Carmen Viejo Almanzor

COORDINATOR

SYMPOSIUM SPEAKERS
Short CV

My lines of research deal with Interpersonal Relationships in Adolescence, particularly romantic relationships and the risks and benefits derived from them. I develop this line in the Laboratory of Studies for Convivencia and Prevention of Violence (LAECOVI). I have participated in regional, national and European research projects, and I am currently directing a national R+D+i project of the Ministry. In all cases, the role of the psychoeducational and social interventions that have resulted from themhave been highlighted. I have also led a contract, and a transfer project aimed at transferring research results. I have carried out several research stays in international centres (UK, Italy, Chile) working with different research teams. I have published several publications in national and international journals, some of them as a result of the stays and in collaboration with international colleagues. My teaching activity has focused on the psychology of adolescent development and learning; I have been director and co-director of Final Degree Projects, Master’s Degree Projects, and PhD Theses (some still in progress). I am Visiting Professor at the University of Sacro Cuore di Milano, where I participate in the international teaching of the Psychology degree. I am the coordinator of the Teaching Innovation Group UCO-GID062, at the University of Cordoba. I am director of the Master’s Degree in Psychology Applied to Education and Social Welfare at UCO. I am a member of the Editorial Committee of the journal Psychology, Society & Education, and of the Evaluation Committee of national and international journals. I am an external evaluator for the Spanish National Research Agency and the European Research Council. I have been awarded two six-year research periods and two five-years teaching periods.

Symposium abstract

The psycho-evolutionary task of choosing a partner is complex; choosing and knowing how to be chosen implies bringing into play previously acquired relationship strategies such as reciprocity, negotiation, or emotional and behavioural regulation, but at the service of new groupings whose rules and difficulties are relatively new and whose objectives include the satisfaction of needs such as intimacy, the search for support, or the construction of a loving bond. The inexperience of boys and girls in this newcontext places this task in a risky position. Dealing with courtship and sentimental initiation becomes a trial-and-error process in which being more or less successful and avoiding inappropriate behaviour such as violence will depend on the previous experiences within the peer context, the development of personal skills and the affective competence acquired, as well as on the management of variables related to the development of life as a couple such as uncertainty or ambiguity generated in the relationship.From this conceptual framework, the aim of this symposium is to deepen the analysis of some of the variables involved in the process of courtship during adolescence and early youth, acting as risks and protective factors for some maladjustment behaviorsas violence.