The onset and escalation of alcohol consumption and romantic relationships become the primary domain teenagers. But only recently become the focus of sociological research.

Derek Kreager, a sociologist at Pennsylvania State University in University Park, and Dana Haynie, a sociologist from Ohio State University, wants to expand the literature.

Kreager and Haynie correlate the use of alcohol and a date to understand the diffusion behavior of network-based drink of friendship.

Adolescent romantic partners may be in the network connecting the boyfriend to the context of new colleagues who, in turn, promote changes in individual behavior and drinking habits across the peer network.

Using longitudinal data from 449 couples dating National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, Kreager and Haynie Actor-Partner Interdependence predicts Models and identify the unique contribution and frequency of boyfriend and friends drinking habits.

These findings support the hypothesis that the drinking habits of friends to have a clean correlation with adolescent drinking patterns. Besides drinking flings coefficient greater than the coefficient for the own your friends and are generally immune from earlier.

The findings indicate a romantic relationship is an important mechanism for understanding the diffusion behavior problems that arise in the adolescent peer networks. Kreager and Haynie report to the American Sociological Review.