Exploring the Influence of the Implicit “Social Clock” in Daily Language on the Perspectives of Romantic Love and Marriage among Teenagers Aged 12-18 — Taking Zhejiang and Shanghai as a Regional Example

Abstract

For adolescents facing a critical stage of major life choices and social identity change, everyday language that implies a social clock has a profound impact. Meanwhile, the researcher finds that teenagers around his life have all already heard about daily corpus like “leftover women and men”, though they are not leftover women or men. Hence, the researcher put forth effort on specific influence of the implicit social clock in the daily language of marriage and romantic love domain for 12-18 years old adolescents. This study used a questionnaire research method and interview research method. A total of 233 questionnaires and 29 in-depth interviews with adolescents aged 12-18 and their families in Zhejiang and Shanghai were analyzed. Based on previous research centered on the expectations of the social clock hidden in everyday language, the study concludes that the everyday language in marriage and romantic relationships has a profound psychological impact on adolescents, including limited self-consciousness limitation and intimacy stereotyping.