Adolescent romantic relationships and substance abuse: The benefits of thinking it will last forever

J. Claire Stephenson, David E. Szwedo, Joseph P. AllenThe University of Virginia

Introduction On the one hand, involvement in romantic relationships can expose an adolescent to damaging experiences such as physical and relational aggression, as well as difficulties associated with relationship dissolution.

Engagement in romantic relationships has been linked to adolescent depression, suicide, and risky sexual behavior.

On the other hand, a romantic partner can be a vital source of companionship, support and intimacy for an adolescent.

It can be expected that adolescent involvement in romantic relationships will also be associated with positive outcomes.

The purpose of the current study is to investigate how involvement in romantic relationships during adolescence impacts future substance use.

Based on findings that indicate that married adults have fewer substance abuse problems, we hypothesized that adolescents who engage in a romantic relationship that carries characteristics typical of a marriage (in terms of commitment and expected duration) will have greater decreases in alcohol-related problems and hard drug use over time relative to those in less committed relationships.

Network of Relationships Inventory (Furman & Buhrmester, 1985)

Reliable Alliance scale assessed the extent to which the adolescent believed his or her relationship would last no matter what completed by participants at Time 2 (mean age=18.30)

Participants reported how many alcohol-related problems they had experienced in the past year at Time 1 (mean age=17.32) and Time 3 (mean age=20.76)

Examples of problems missing class or work driving under the influence being taken advantage of sexually getting hurt or injured

Participants reported the number of times they had used hard drugs in the past year at Time 1 and Time 3

Time 1 measures, as well as gender and income, will be used as covariates in all analyses

ParticipantsDiscussion

Results

Participants were part of a larger, ongoing longitudinal study of adolescent development

Chosen for this study based on the fact that they were in a romantic relationship of at least three months at Time 2 (mean age=18.30)

Target adolescent demographics 56 females and 41 males (total N= 97) Ethnically and Socio-economically diverse

Table 1. Hierarchical Regression predicting target teen’s alcohol related problems at Time 3

β Entry β Final ΔR2 Total R2

Step 1. Gender - .17* - .10

Income .28*** .21*

Statistics from step. .11*** .11***

Step 2. Alcohol related problems .42*** .50*** .16*** .27*** at Time 1

Step 3. Teen report of reliable - .19* - .19* .15* .42*** alliance with romantic partner at Time 2

Note. *** p< .001 **p<.01 *p< .05

Adolescents’ belief that their romantic relationship would last forever predicted a relative decrease in alcohol-related problems (Table 1)

Adolescents’ belief that their romantic relationship would last forever relationship predicted a relative decrease in how frequently they used hard drugs (Table 2)

Summary: Even after accounting for adolescent reports of alcohol related problems and hard drug use at age Time 1, as well as gender and income, the strength of an adolescent’s belief that his or her relationship would last no matter what significantly predicted a relative decrease in alcohol related problems and hard drug use at Time 3

Similar to the findings regarding marriage and decreased substance use in adulthood, this study demonstrates that involvement in romantic relationships can be beneficial for adolescents who feel they have established a stable and enduring bond with their partner

These findings are limited in that they do not demonstrate a causal relationship. It is possible that a third variable, such as maturity, could account for the relationship between romantic relationship involvement and decreased substance abuse

Areas of future research include further exploring other benefits of committed adolescent romantic relationships and examining other possible predictors of decreases in substance abuse

Table 2. Hierarchical Regression predicting target teen’s frequency of hard drug use at Time 3

β Entry β Final ΔR2 Total R2

Step 1. Gender - .26** - .30**

Income .14 .17

Statistics from step. .10*** .10***

Step 2. Frequency of hard drug .31*** .57*** .08*** .18*** use at Time 1

Step 3. Teen report of reliable - .22** - .22** .26** .44*** alliance with romantic partner at Time 2

Note. *** p< .001 **p<.01 *p< .05

Measures

This poster was made possible by funding from NICHD awarded to Joseph P. Allen, Principal Investigator (Grant # 9R01HD058305-11A1)