1. Adolescent Emotional Repair Predicting Abusive Behavior in Adolescent and Young Adult Romantic Relationships. Elenda T. Hessel, Megan M. Schad, Barbara A. Oudekerk, & Joseph P. Allen University of Virginia. We would like to thank the National Institute of Child Health & Human Development for funding awarded to Joseph P. Allen, Principal Investigator, (9 R01 HD058305-A11) for funding to conduct this study as well as for the write-up of this study. Introduction Premises Adolescence marks the developmental period during which romantic relationships emerge and become increasingly serious. These relationships can bring with them new intensities in emotional experience, and as such, individuals who are more in control of their emotions may be better poised to react appropriately to emotional distress that occurs within the context of these relationships. Specifically, individuals who are less capable of recovering from negative moods may be at greater risk of reacting with hostility or aggression towards romantic partners in times of distress. Adolescents who are more capable of improving negative and maintaining positive moods may be less likely to become involved in relationships wherein verbal or physical aggression occurs. This study seeks to investigate the role adolescent emotional repair abilities play in predicting verbal and physical aggression in later romantic relationships. Hypotheses. Emotion Regulation at age 15 will predict romantic relationships in emerging adulthood with lower rates of verbal abuse, both perpetrated and received by the adolescent at ages 18 and 21. Emotion Regulation at age 15 will predict romantic relationships in emerging adulthood with lower rates of physical abuse, both perpetrated and received by the adolescent at age 21. Method Conclusions Results Participants Multi-method longitudinal data were obtained from 184 teenagers along with their romantic partners at age 18 (N=77) and again at age 21 (N=118). 58% Caucasian, 29% African American, and 13% Mixed or Other ethnicity. Median household income was within the $40,000 to $59,000 range. Target teen mean age was 15.21 years at Time 1, 18.30 at Time 2, and 20.99 at Time 3. Procedures. Time 1 (Age 15) - Target teen filled out questionnaires about their emotion regulation abilities. Time 2 and 3 (Age 18 and 21 respectively) - Target teen and their romantic partners filled out questionnaires about the relationship between the teen and the romantic partner. Measures. Emotion Regulation Teens completed a self-report measure of emotional repair using the 6- item “Repair” subscale of the Trait Meta-Mood Scale (Salovey, et al, 1995). Responses were given on a 5-point likert scale, with possible responses ranging from “Strongly Agree” to “Strongly disagree”. Positively valenced items were reverse coded. The repair subscale has been well and it showed good internal consistency in this sample (Cronbach’s α =.82). Verbal Abuse The teen and their romantic partner were asked to separately report their experiences of verbal abuse in their relationship with one another, using the 16-item “Verbal Abuse” subscale of the Psychological Maltreatment Experience Scale (Petretic-Jackson, Betz, Pitman, 1995). Items include questions such as, “How often does your partner make you feel ashamed or guilty for something?” and “How often does your partner insult you?”. Responses were given on a 4-point likert scale, with possible responses ranging from “Never” to “Very Often”. The internal consistency of this scale was excellent across reporters and time points(α = 0.89- 0.93). Physical Abuse The teen and their romantic partner were asked to separately report on the physical aggression that they and their romantic partners had used in the past year in the course of disagreements. Physical aggression was reported using the 11-item “Physical Abuse” subscale of Conflict Tactics Scale (Straus, 1979). Items include questions such as, “How often have you pushed, grabbed or shoved your partner?” and “How often has your partner pushed, grabbed, or shoved you?”. Responses were given on a 7- point likert scale, with possible responses ranging from “Never” to “More than 20 Times”. The internal consistency of this scale was good (α = 0.87- 0.90). These results indicate that adolescents who by age 15 are more capable of maintaining positive and improving negative moods may be at a lowered risk of both perpetrating and receiving verbal and physical abuse, later on in adolescence, or in emerging adulthood. It could be that adolescents who are more in control of their emotions may be more capable of modulating negative emotional reactions before they result in acts of verbal or physical aggression. Moreover, as the results show that both adolescents and their romantic partners are less likely to resort to these maladaptive behaviors, it may also be that adolescents who are more adept at controlling their emotions seek out partners for romantic relationships who are similarly adept at emotional repair, resulting in a dyad that may be more skillful at responding appropriately to conflict within a relationship. Analyses revealed that teen’s abilities to maintain positive and improve negative moods at 15 predicted their and their romantic partners’ reports of verbal abuse at age 18, but not at 21, and their and their romantic partners’ report of physical abuse at age 21. Specifically, adolescent emotional repair predicted less verbal abuse from one’s romantic partner at age 18, as reported by adolescents, (β=-.31, p<.01) and their romantic partners (β=-.28, p<.05). Similarly, adolescent emotional repair predicted less physical abuse from one’s romantic partner at age 21, as reported by adolescents, (β=-.22, p<.05) and their romantic partners (β=-.28, p<.01). All dependent variables were log transformed to account for non- normality. Each of these predictions was obtained after accounting for adolescents’ gender and their family-of-origin’s income. Thoughts? Questions? Ideas? E-mail: Elie Hessel at eth4bh@virginia.edu