ABSTRACT
By the end of the 1920s adult authorities had begun to view dating, and even petting, as normal rituals leading to courtship. Yet even though the flaming youth of the period became more sexually exploratory, expanded schooling may have changed the social structure of coercive sex. Dating had flourished among urban, working-class youth for at least two decades before 1920. The goal of the date had always been to give young people independence of adult supervision, to escape both cramped living quarters and the ever-present relatives on the other side of the room or, at best, in the next room. This independence was mainly to allow for sex play. New companions, as much as dating and petting, shaped adolescent sexuality in the 1920s. But American youth arriving at high school after 1930 began to alter and abandon many of the most recognizable features of dating. The dating culture of 1920s most distinctive sexuality of American youth-would survive only one generation.
