In summary, the present study integrates romantic relationship status into extant etiological models of alcohol use/misuse. We examined whether alcohol-related risk factors predicted whether emerging adults' were dating several people, and whether dating several people was in turn related to alcohol use using short-term longitudinal data from a large multi-cohort study. We find evidence that parental alcohol problems have indirect effects on romantic relationship status via a deviance proneness pathway (marked by conduct problems) and a positive affect regulation pathway (marked by positive urgency). In turn, dating several people was associated with alcohol use. These results underscore the idea that familial and individual-level risk factors for alcohol use are also associated with relationship experiences that may support behavioral continuity.
