text: Romantic relationships Serious romantic relationships often begin to occur in adulthood. Data on participants in a German longitudinal study indicated that 43% of middle adolescents and 47% of late adolescents reported romantic relationships compared to 63% in emerging adulthood. Emerging adulthood relationships carried on for an average of 21.3 months compared to adolescence, which averaged at 5.1 and 11.8 months. Montgomery and Sorell (1994) did a study on romantic love and it reported that unmarried emerging adults would be more dominating, clingy, possessive, and dependent compared to young and married couples who have an altruistic selfless love. Emerging adults had less satisfaction in their relationships. Emerging adults also tended to cohabit with their romantic partners, which helped with their finances and housing situations. Cohabitation usually led to marriage. Data shows that 60% of American emerging adults will live with a partner, and over half of cohabitation relationships result in marriage. Biological factors could come into play as well regarding the emerging adult relationships that do work out such as problem-solving behavior in order to reproduce. It is possible that lack of experience is what leads many emerging adults to failing in their relationships, however this biological aid as well as the individuals involved could be what is leading to the success of some of these relationships.