Dating and breakups take a heavy emotional toll on adolescent mental health

Entering the dating world or going through a breakup can increase the likelihood that teenagers will experience suicidal thoughts or actions. A recent study published in the Journal of Adolescence tracked Chinese students over a year to understand how navigating new romantic relationships affects their mental health. The researchers found that starting a relationship or going through a breakup raised the odds of suicidal behaviors, highlighting a clear need for better emotional support for teens.

Adolescence brings a sudden rush of physical and emotional changes. Teenagers are figuring out who they are and how they fit into the social world around them. This rocky transition can make them particularly vulnerable to a wide variety of mental health struggles.

Globally, suicide remains one of the leading causes of death among young people. Finding reliable ways to identify which teenagers are most at risk is a major priority for public health experts. Romance is a highly visible part of teenage life, but it comes with a steep learning curve.

Navigating an intimate relationship requires high levels of emotional regulation and communication skills that many teenagers are still developing. While a healthy romance can offer steady support and happiness, the intense stress of daily arguments or a sudden breakup can easily become overwhelming. Some prior research has linked these relationship troubles to self-harm, but much of that earlier work focused almost exclusively on older adults in Western countries.

Researchers wanted to understand how these dynamics play out in a completely different cultural context. In China, teenage romance is often viewed with deep suspicion by adults. Parents and teachers frequently discourage or outright forbid dating during middle and high school.

Adults in this culture often label early dating as “precocious love.” They worry it will distract students from their highly competitive academic responsibilities. Because of these intense pressures, starting a relationship in China might carry more stress and secrecy than it does in other parts of the world.

Zhen-Zhen Liu, a researcher in the Department of Preventive Medicine at the Changchun University of Chinese Medicine, led a team to investigate this issue. Liu and colleagues Cun-Xian Jia and Xianchen Liu wanted to track how romantic beginnings and endings influence a teenager’s mental health over time. They specifically aimed to see if these events could predict future thoughts of suicide, plans for self-harm, or actual suicide attempts.

To gather their data, the research team surveyed thousands of students in Shandong province, a populous region on the eastern coast of China. The researchers focused on students in the seventh, eighth, and tenth grades. They skipped students in their final years of middle or high school, as those teenagers were intensely preparing for demanding college entrance exams.

The initial survey included over eleven thousand students, with an average age of about fifteen. The questionnaire asked the teenagers if they had started a romantic relationship or gone through a breakup in the past year. It also broke down self-harm into three distinct categories, asking if the students had experienced any suicidal thoughts, made a specific suicide plan, or actually attempted suicide.

The researchers also collected data on the students’ family backgrounds and living situations. They asked about household finances, the educational levels of the parents, and how well the parents got along with each other. By accounting for these outside variables, the researchers could isolate the specific impact of romantic relationships.

About a quarter of the surveyed teenagers reported starting a relationship or going through a breakup in the previous twelve months. This rate is lower than what is typically seen in the United States, where a majority of teenagers date. It still represents a massive number of Chinese students navigating romance in a highly restrictive environment.

When analyzing the initial survey responses, the team noticed clear patterns. Teenagers who had recently entered a relationship, gone through a breakup, or experienced both events reported higher rates of suicidal thoughts and behaviors. This pattern held true even after the researchers accounted for the students’ family backgrounds and ages.

One year later, the researchers returned to survey over seven thousand of the same students. They wanted to conduct a longitudinal analysis, which involves tracking the same individuals over time to see how early events influence later outcomes. The questionnaire again asked about suicidal thoughts, plans, and attempts over the intervening twelve months.

The results from this second round of surveys provided deeper insights into how romance affects teens over a longer period. Students who had experienced both the start and end of a relationship during the first survey year had higher odds of experiencing suicidal thoughts, plans, and attempts by the second survey. Just starting a romance without a breakup also predicted a higher chance of a future suicide attempt.

The researchers then focused specifically on teenagers who had no history of suicidal behavior at the time of the first survey. This allowed the team to see if romantic events could trigger entirely new mental health struggles. In this group, starting a new relationship was linked to a fifty-four percent higher chance of developing new suicidal thoughts.

For these same teens, a new romance also doubled the likelihood of a new suicide attempt by the following year. Students who experienced both a new relationship and a breakup saw elevated risks across the board. They had higher chances of developing new suicidal thoughts, plans, and attempts.

Breaking up alone did not seem to predict new suicidal behaviors a year later for teenagers who had no previous mental health struggles. The researchers suspect that starting a relationship might actually be more stressful than ending one in this specific cultural environment. Because dating is heavily discouraged by adults, keeping a new relationship secret could create immense psychological pressure.

In contrast, a breakup might be easier for a Chinese teenager to navigate. Friends, parents, and teachers might be more willing to offer support or even express relief when a relationship ends. This social safety net could soften the emotional blow of a breakup.

The study also looked at how these experiences differed between boys and girls. Teenage girls generally reported higher rates of suicidal behaviors than boys. The links between romantic events and mental health struggles also appeared stronger in female students.

Despite these apparent differences, the mathematical tests used to compare the two gender groups showed that the variation was not statistically significant. This means the overall trend applies to teenagers broadly. Both boys and girls face elevated risks when navigating the high-stress environment of teenage dating.

While the study provides a broad look at adolescent mental health, the researchers noted several limitations to their work. The data relied entirely on self-reported questionnaires. Teenagers might be hesitant to admit to forbidden dating or highly stigmatized suicidal behaviors, which could mean the true numbers are higher than reported.

The survey also used very basic questions to assess relationships. It did not ask about the quality of the romance, how long it lasted, or whether it involved physical aggression or extreme jealousy. Knowing the specifics of the relationship dynamics would give health professionals a much clearer picture of what exactly causes the emotional distress.

Another limitation is that the researchers only surveyed the students twice, a year apart. Mental health and romantic status can change rapidly from month to month or even week to week for a teenager. Taking more frequent snapshots of the students’ lives would help researchers track these fast-moving emotional shifts.

The research team also lacked data on other important influences, such as how well the students cope with stress or how much peer support they receive. They also did not have information on sexual orientation or gender identity. Minority teenagers often face unique societal pressures that can make dating and mental health challenges far more intense.

Future studies should explore these missing pieces to build a fuller picture of adolescent romance. Researchers need to investigate the exact mechanisms that turn romantic stress into suicidal thoughts. Understanding whether the distress comes from parental conflict, peer gossip, or internal emotional turmoil will be an important next step.

Ultimately, the findings suggest that parents and schools need to rethink how they handle teenage romance. Instead of simply banning dating, adults could provide education on how to build healthy relationships and manage emotional pain. Offering teenagers a safe space to talk about their romantic lives might help prevent tragic outcomes.

The study, “Associations Between Start or End of a Romance and Suicidal Behavior: A Longitudinal Study of Chinese Adolescents,” was authored by Zhen‐Zhen Liu, Cun‐Xian Jia, and Xianchen Liu.