When considered together, our deviance proneness pathway and positive affect regulation pathway findings provide an interesting example of equifinality (von Bertalanffy, 1968) when it comes to understanding how romantic relationship status fits into etiological models of alcohol use. Equifinality is the idea that the same “state” (in this case, dating several people) can be reached through multiple means. We observe equifinality in that parental alcohol problems appears to indirectly increase the likelihood that one will date several partners via individual differences in conduct problems and positive urgency that are only modestly correlated. Said another way, it appears likely that there are individuals who “arrive” at dating several people via the deviance proneness pathway while others are likely to “arrive” via the positive urgency pathway. This underscores the diverse alcohol-related pathways to this particular romantic relationship status.
