Thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology

This thesis investigates teenage heterosexual relationship safety and risk. It is structured around a reading of the constitution of gendered heterocoupledom, romance, risk and adolescence, and problematises how heterocoupledom is entered into, the labours of love, and young women's responses to harm, abuse, and violence from boyfriends. Interviews with young women and focus groups with young women and men were conducted. It argues that heterocoupledom at adolescence discursively constitutes 'girlfriends' and 'boyfriends' as gendered subjects of safety and risk. The gendering of safety and risk operates to position girlfriends as risk navigators who make pre-emptive and response-able moves. Safety and risk are regarded as disciplinary techniques that regulate girlfriends' performances in relation to defending or maintaining safety and managing risk. The author further argues that this positioning as risk navigators only makes 'sense' when the subject of girlfriend is figured as already unsafe and yet responsible for risk. Boyfriends are argued to be positioned as already safe and capable risk takers within heterocoupledom and this configuration means that young men's engagements with safety and risk remain normalised and unproblematic.--AUTHOR'S ABSTRACT

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