The formation of romantic relationships and the engagement in sexual behaviours are considered

normative and salient developmental tasks for adolescents and young adults. These developmental
tasks are increasingly viewed from an ecological perspective, thus not only as individual processes,
but also as strongly embedded in different social contexts, including the proximal social domains of
parents, peers, and partners. This special issue brings together seven recent empirical studies on
adolescents' and young adults' romantic relationships and sexuality in the context of relationships
and interactions with parents, peers, and partners. In this editorial introduction, we describe two
important recent changes in the theoretical perspectives on emerging romantic relationships and
sexual activity: from risky behaviours to normative tasks, and from individual to contextualized
processes. We then discuss recent advances in empirical research on romantic relationships and
sexuality of adolescents and young adults. After that, we review the seven studies in this special
issue, and discuss the contributions of these studies to the existing literature. Finally, we discuss
directions for future research regarding how the interrelational perspective can be further
incorporated into empirical research, and how the gap between the research fields on romantic
relationships and sexuality may be bridged.