He smiled as he thought about all those after-school trips over the last few years: dance classes, piano practices, the unending cycle of softball games and tournaments.

He glanced at her in the seat next to him and thought, .

Before deciding how you're going to proceed, it's crucial to realize that contemporary dating is radically different from what it was when the majority of today's parents were kids.

Sexual promiscuity is rampant, even among Christian teens, and many young people receive little or no moral guidance from their parents.

Many times, young girls enter a relationship or pretend to be interested in finding a significant other because they do not want to be the odd one out.

Dating young can have several negative effects on a girl’s life.

Movies, music and television can make young girls think that being in a relationship will make them “more desirable” or ‘more mature.” Seeing images of couples in movies or hearing songs about love can make a girl yearn for a romantic relationship of her own. Like many other decisions we make in adolescence (what we wear, what we look like, whom we hang out with), what others think is often an important motivator.

As the horde of rush-hour cars streamed by, Bill reminisced about the teenage daughter he had just picked up from band practice.

The Date Safe Project is committed to being the nation’s leading organization for teaching how “asking first” makes all the difference in creating safer intimacy and in decreasing occurrences of sexual assault.

Choose focuses on preventing dating abuse by educating 11- 14-year-olds about healthy relationships.

“If a girl doesn’t have a strong sense of self, she may seek acceptance through dating,” says therapist and researcher Dr. “This, in fact, has a negative effect on her self-esteem. it doesn’t define you.” It is important that we encourage and praise girls for waiting to date.

When a girl waits longer before starting to date, she can often have more time to get to know herself and put herself first.