ABSTRACT
The Philippines has a sizeable young population: one in every five Filipinos is aged 15 to 24. As the country’s annual population growth rate is sustained at 2.3 per cent, the number of its young people continues to increase at a steady pace. Interviews and discussions with students were conducted in vacant classrooms and those with slum dwellers in various places: in a public hall, inside a parked motor vehicle, in public parks, along a closed road, beside a military barracks, in a football ground and in a restaurant. The lack of recent dating activity among many students and slum dwellers, and the relatively low frequencies of dating among those who had dated in the last four weeks, could be attributed to several factors. Some students in the discussions cited that academic work and extra-curricular activities would prevent young people from dating, or from dating frequently.
