The current investigation examined the interactive effect of dysfunctional dating attitudes and religiosity on substance use in a large sample of youth ( ) from the YouthStyles survey. Based on past research, we explored the possibility that religiosity buffered the association between dysfunctional dating attitudes and substance use. Because age was significantly associated with all study variables, we included age in our analyses. In support of our hypothesis we found an attitude by religiosity by age interaction among youth with moderate levels of dysfunctional dating attitudes. Among these youth, the buffering effect of religiosity increased with age. For youth with low and high dysfunctional dating attitudes, religiosity did not buffer the association. The results of this study are in line with past work that suggests that the association between relationship characteristics and substance use is complex. It also identifies religiosity as a protective factor for the effect of dating attitudes on substance use but suggests that these effects may be the most important for youth with moderate levels of dysfunctional dating attitudes. 1. Introduction Substance use and relationship problems are significant issues facing youth. The 2013 Youth Risk Behavior Survey found that 34.9% of high school students had used alcohol and 23% used marijuana in the 30 days prior to the survey; among the 73.9% of high school students who had dated in the 12 months prior to the survey, 10.3% experienced prior-year physical dating violence and 10.4% experienced prior-year sexual dating violence [1]. Substance use has been supported as a risk factor for dating violence perpetration and victimization (for review, see [2]) and as a consequence of dating violence victimization [3]. Less work has examined the role that dating attitudes and relationship characteristics play in youth’s substance use. Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, two studies have found that partner and relationship characteristics can have differing effects on subsequent substance use. Kreager and Haynie [4] found that, for boys and girls who reported that the friends of their dating partner used alcohol, their own drinking frequency and binge drinking had increased when assessed one year later. In contrast, Gudonis-Miller, et al. [5] found that as relationship seriousness increased over time, marijuana use decreased. Taken together, these studies suggest that aspects of youth romantic relationships can be either risk or protective factors for substance use. While the
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