Anxiety and depression in young adults: The role of perceived romantic partner drinking

Abstract

AbstractThis cross‐sectional study examined how perceived partner drinking relates to relationship satisfaction and symptoms of anxiety and depression across romantic drinking partnerships. Participants included 239 cisgender, heterosexual undergraduate students in current romantic relationships (Mage = 19.74; 76.15% female; 87.87% White) who reported their own and their romantic partner's drinking. Associations between drinking partnerships, identified via K‐medoid cluster analysis, and internalizing symptomatology were examined utilizing hierarchical linear regression. Perceived partner drinking problems were associated with symptoms of depression but not anxiety. Two drinking quantity (concordant light, concordant heavy) and three drinking problem (concordant light, discordant female high, discordant male high) partnerships were identified. Broadly, men's anxiety and relationship satisfaction were significantly impacted by their drinking quantity and problem partnerships, respectively; this effect was not observed for women. The findings of this study extend extant research on the impact of romantic partner drinking to unmarried, collegiate emerging adults who are at an increased risk of internalizing symptomatology and alcohol use and inform conceptualization of drinking partnerships at the drinking quantity and drinking problem level.