Dowdy and Kliewer (1998) investigated the dating behavior and reports of parent-child relationships in a cross-sectional study of 859 high school students. The sample was from the southeast, and was diverse in regard to ethnicity, socioeconomic background, and family structure, though gender was split unequally (71% female). The investigation found that adolescents who dated, especially females and short-term daters, were more likely to have "intense conflict" with their parents than were non-daters. This association is moderate, though significant (Dowdy & Kliewer, 1998). These results support findings by Quatman et al. (2001). A cross-sectional study of 380 adolescents in eigth, tenth, and 12th grade was recently conducted in Northern California. The researchers found that frequent dating, described as dating more than "once or twice a month," is associated with poorer familial relationships than those in families of adolescents who date infrequently (Quatman, Sampson, Robinson, & Watson, 2001).