The Antecedents and Consequences of Romantic Relationship Tempo in Young Adulthood
Open Access
- Author:
- Washington, Chanell Nicole
- Graduate Program:
- Sociology
- Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Document Type:
- Dissertation
- Date of Defense:
- May 21, 2020
- Committee Members:
- Valarie Elizabeth King, Dissertation Advisor/Co-Advisor
Valarie Elizabeth King, Committee Chair/Co-Chair
Jennifer Elyse Glick, Committee Member
Michelle Lynn Frisco, Committee Member
Jennifer Lianne Maggs, Outside Member
Jennifer Lynne Van Hook, Committee Member
Jennifer Lynne Van Hook, Program Head/Chair - Keywords:
- marriage
cohabitation
parent-child relationship quality
relationship tempo
alcohol consumption
depressive symptoms
family structure
family instability
family belonging - Abstract:
- This dissertation used data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health) to examine how family of origin factors (i.e., family structure, family instability, parent-child relationship quality, family belonging, and interparental relationship quality) are associated with the tempo to sex and shared living (i.e., cohabitation or direct marriage) in young adulthood. This dissertation also examines how the tempo to shared living in young adulthood is associated with depressive symptoms and alcohol consumption. Chapter 2 investigates how family of origin factors are associated with young adults’ tempo to sex at Wave III for those who lived with a parent or parent-like figure during adolescence and had a sexual relationship with an opposite-sex partner (n = 9,175). Results from this chapter revealed that those who lived in nontraditional family structures during adolescence (i.e., stepfamilies, single biological parents, and other family structures) had a faster tempo to sex in young adulthood than those who lived with two biological parents. Family instability, however, was not significantly associated with the tempo to sex in multivariate models. Higher quality parent-child relationships were associated with a slower tempo to sex, but when family belonging was controlled for, the association was no longer significant. Greater perceptions of family belonging were also associated with a slower tempo to sex. In models that included only respondents who resided with two parents (i.e., biological parents or stepparents) during adolescence, results indicated that interparental relationship quality was not significantly associated with tempo to sex. Additionally, higher quality mother-child and father-child relationships were associated with a slower tempo to sex, but when both were included in the model simultaneously, only father-child relationship quality remained significantly associated with the tempo to sex. When family belonging was controlled for, though, the association between father-child relationship quality and tempo to sex was reduced to nonsignificance. Chapter 3 examines how family of origin factors are associated with the tempo to shared living (i.e., cohabitation or direct marriage) at Wave IV for those who lived with a parent or parent-like figure and had a current romantic relationship with an opposite-sex partner (n = 9,750). When the tempo to cohabitation was the outcome, I found that those who lived in nontraditional family structures during adolescence had a faster tempo to cohabitation than those who lived with two biological parents; however, when family instability was controlled for, the associations between living with a stepfamily and single biological parent and the tempo to cohabitation were no longer significant. Greater family instability was associated with a faster tempo to cohabitation, and none of the study variables reduced this association to nonsignificance. Higher quality parent-child relationships were associated with a slower tempo to cohabitation, but when family belonging was added to the model, the association between parent-child relationship quality and tempo to cohabitation was no longer significant. Family belonging was also associated with a slower tempo to cohabitation. In analyses that only included adolescents who lived with two parents, results showed that interparental relationship quality was not significantly associated with the tempo to cohabitation. Furthermore, higher quality mother-child and father-child relationships were associated with a delayed entry into cohabiting unions in the bivariate models, but in the multivariate models, only mother-child relationship quality remained associated with a slower tempo to cohabitation, even after family belonging was added to the model. When the tempo to direct marriage was the outcome, results showed that those who lived with a single biological parent during adolescence had a slower tempo to direct marriage, compared to those who lived with two biological parents. Family instability was not associated with the tempo to direct marriage. Parent-child relationship quality was not associated with the tempo to direct marriage; however, when parent-child relationship quality was included in the model, the association between living in a single parent family and the tempo to direct marriage was reduced to nonsignificance. Greater perceptions of family belonging, however, were associated with a faster tempo to direct marriage. For those who lived with two parents during adolescence, interparental relationship quality was not associated with the tempo to direct marriage. Moreover, neither mother-child nor father-child relationship quality were significantly associated with the tempo to direct marriage in either bivariate or multivariate models. Chapter 4 investigates how the tempo to shared living is associated with depressive symptoms and alcohol consumption at Wave IV, for those who were currently in a cohabiting or marital union (n = 8,763). This chapter also examines whether romantic relationship quality mediates the association between tempo to shared living and depressive symptoms and alcohol consumption, and also examines whether gender moderates the association between relationship tempo and depressive symptoms and alcohol consumption. Results indicated that a slower tempo to shared living was associated with fewer depressive symptoms; however, a slower tempo to shared living was associated with greater alcohol consumption. Romantic relationship quality did not mediate the associations between the tempo to shared living and depressive symptoms and alcohol consumption. Furthermore, gender did not moderate these associations.