EMPIRICAL RESEARCH Distinctiveness of Adolescent and Emerging Adult Romantic Relationship Features in Predicting Externalizing Behavior Problems

Abstract Romantic relationship involvement has repeat-edly been associated with the incidence of externalizing behavior problems, but little is known about the nature and developmental significance of this relation. The current study extends previous research by investigating whether and through what processes romantic relationships dis-tinctively predict externalizing behavior problems during adolescence compared to emerging adulthood. Data came from the Minnesota Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children. As predicted, higher levels of romantic rela-tionship security at 16 years were associated with lower levels of externalizing behavior problems during both adolescence and emerging adulthood, but this inverse relation was stronger for emerging adults than for adoles-cents. This relation was not attributable either to earlier quality of family and peer relationships or emerging adulthood competence. Thus, security of romantic rela-tionships may become increasingly predictive of individual differences in externalizing behavior problems as individ-uals move from adolescence to emerging adulthood