Traditional Dating

"One of the main risks in today's dating culture is that young people often lack much dating experience before they get involved in an exclusive relationship and, sometimes, even get quickly engaged. Proper mate selection and coupling needs the middle ground of traditional dating."

"The most prominent LDS college town, Provo, is not exempt from the growing popularity of hanging out. The BYU School of Family Life published a study in 2010 about the hanging out culture in Provo. Matthew Call, Michael Richards and Thomas B. Holman found that there are two types of Latter-day Saint hanging out, each with very different purposes.

The first type, Purposive Hanging Out, does have dating as an end goal. If young adults hang out with the intention of finding dates, the outcomes can be positive. According to the study, this type of hanging out can help single adults to find and observe potential dating partners, thus reducing the awkwardness of dating total strangers. When it works correctly, Purposive Hanging Out leads to dating, so the hanging out stage is short lived.

But the other type of hanging out has much less purpose. With Non-Committal Hanging Out, the intention is to avoid committing to a dating relationship. Participants in Non-Committal Hanging Out want to have fun, fill time and stay friends. Ironically, this type of hanging out is all about the moment, but generally extends for long periods of time.

Rutter also saw distinct reasons for both hanging out and dating. “Dating is really great when you want to get to know someone one-on-one,” she said, “and hanging out is really good to see how they interact with other people.”

Overall, the study concluded that hanging out can lead to marriage, but LDS young adults don’t generally view a date as a casual way to start a relationship."

 http://www.ldsliving.com/story/64829-marriage-age-on-the-rise-lds-single-adults-still-hanging-out
 Hawkins, A., Dollahite, D., & Draper, T. (2012). Successful marriages and families. Provo, Utah: BYU Studies and School of Family Life, Brigham Young University.