High school relationships help teenagers develop emotional skills and understand personal boundaries. Even though they are often temporary, they teach students what qualities they value in a partner and how to recognize healthy versus unhealthy relationships.
Counselor Carla Hotts said she thinks high school is often the first-time students experience strong romantic attachment, vulnerability, and emotional connection. A healthy relationship includes trust and honesty, open communication, independence, feeling safe-emotionally and physically.
“Healthy relationships often look quiet and respectful. I see students who encourage each other academically, respect boundaries, communicate openly, and still maintain their own friendships and interests,” Hotts said. “The healthiest couples don’t isolate themselves from others.”
Chloe Wesson ’26 said she is dating a person who she met at the theater. Wesson said she thinks good communication means a lot in her relationship. And while both support each other in hard times.
In the busy stressful days hanging out makes her feel good. She said she is in a healthy relationship because both respect boundaries and be honest with each other.
“It’s okay for me to say I’m not okay with something, or we need to talk about something, and he didn’t yell at me or anything,” Wesson said. “Relationships definitely help you grow as a person, because you get to see like, what you like, how you want to be treated, what’s most important to you.”
Hotts believes love should never require sacrificing safety or self-respect. Loving someone does not mean you have to stay in a situation that harms you.
“If a relationship involves jealousy, pressure, manipulation, fear, constant arguments, or control over friends, clothing, or social media,” Hotts said. “Those are warning signs of an unhealthy relationship.”
Sophia Nash’26 said she is in her second relationship now and notes that she was in a toxic relationship with her ex previously. Now, Nash said she is happy with her partner because she can tell by looking at her partner’s eye that he is not lying to her. Her partner makes sure to text her if she is okay.
“I learned from this relationship is that no one needs to control what I wear or my body like someone else has before, and I don’t need to give him every single piece of information that I know,” Nash said. “He likes to give me my boundaries and respect, and that makes me feel like I’m my own person. Because when I was in my first relationship, I felt like I belonged to that person. I felt like that person owned me, but I’m not someone to be owned.”
