It should also be noted that recent studies examining the respective relation between changes in personality and changes in alcohol involvement with adult roles, such as marriage, have focused on marital/relationship quality rather than marital/relationship status (e.g., Kearns-Bodkin & Leonard, 2005; Scollon & Diener, 2006). It could be that marital quality, rather than status, influences changes in both alcohol involvement and personality (i.e., marital quality is a sufficient third-variable explanation for the finding of correlated change between alcohol involvement and personality). Similarly, parental status rather than parental involvement was assessed in the current analyses. It is possible that parental involvement (i.e., the degree to which the parent is the primary caregiver) as opposed to status accounts for the changes in both alcohol involvement and personality. The current analyses do not address these possibilities. Additionally, the influence of career changes on changes in both alcohol involvement and personality should be considered as a potential third-variable explanation for the finding of correlated change between alcohol involvement and personality in future studies.
