David Elkind, professor of child study at Tufts University and author of "The Hurried Child," lists several reasons why early dating is a problem for young people. He says youth younger than age 14 do not have the social and interpersonal skills that are required in dating situations.

Know that you, the parent, are still the most important influence in your child’s life. By helping your child delay dating, you are helping him or her be involved in appropriate activities that will build skills he or she will need as a teen and young adult.

Elkind lists several problems that early dating often leads to:

Relationship skills stay superficial

Children spend less time with same-sex friends

Premature sexual involvement

Research shows that young people who start dating early are more likely to become sexually involved. One factor involved in early sexual activity is peer pressure — a dating partner pressures the other person to have sex.

Younger teens are much more affected by peer pressure than older youth and, therefore, are more likely to give in to having sex.

Also, studies show that youth who become sexually involved when they are still very young are more likely to have problems in later relationships than are adolescents who delay becoming involved sexually.

Personal identity is underdeveloped

Development specialists believe that people need a sense of personal identity before they can be really close to another person.

In other words, if a young person does not know who he or she really is, that boy or girl cannot relate in a healthy way to a person of the opposite sex.

For example, a boy who does not know what he wants and expects in a relationship may be too easily talked into feelings and behavior for which he is not yet ready.