A longitudinal investigation of relational turbulence during the transition to college

ABSTRACT

As emerging adults transition to college, they must adapt to new circumstances, both academic and personal. For partners involved in a romantic relationship prior to attending college, this transition has important relational implications, including potential fluctuations in relational uncertainty and interdependence. Guided by relational turbulence theory (RTT), we conducted the present study to model growth trajectories of first-semester students’ relationship parameters and experiences of relational turbulence during their transition to college (i.e., during the first eight weeks). Results of latent growth curve modeling revealed that students experienced higher levels of relational uncertainty, interference from a partner, and facilitation from a partner at the very beginning of their first semester in college, but each of these relationship parameters decreased over the first two months of the semester. Additionally, relational turbulence remained stable and did not change throughout the semester but correlated with contemporaneous relationship parameters as RTT predicts.

KEYWORDS:

• Relational turbulence
• uncertainty
• interdependence
• latent growth curve model

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. We advise some caution regarding our findings on partner uncertainty as quadratic growth models run the risk of improving model fit based on idiosyncratic characteristics of a sample rather than actual theoretical backing (Preacher, Wichman, MacCallum, & Briggs, 2008).