Binge drinking in the context of romantic relationships Judith L. Fischer T , Jacki Fitzpatrick, Bo Cleveland, Ji-Min Lee, Amanda McKnight, Bobbi Miller Department of Human Development and Family Studies Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX 79409, United States Abstract This study examined consequences of binge drinking on relationship conversation qualities (positive tone, general disagreements, drinking disagreements, and talks about drinking) among romantically involved college students. Conversation qualities were predicted with three binging variables: (a) same day binging, (b) prior day binging, and (c) total amount of binging reported. The participants (N = 156) completed 10 daily diaries of relationship conversations as well as drinking behaviors. Same day binging increased the occurrence of both drinking disagreements and talks about drinking. However, prior day binging was not associated with any of the four conversation qualities examined. Greater numbers of binges over the duration of the study were associated with less overall positive tone, and more general disagreements, drinking disagreements, and talks about drinking. The implications of the findings for student drinking patterns and relational quality are discussed. D 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Binge drinking; Romantic relationships; College students; Relationship conversations Excessive drinking has substantial effects on the lives of college students. Some drinking outcomes may be perceived as positive by drinkers (Park, 2004). However, most research has shown that excessive alcohol use is associated with negative consequences, such as poor academic performance (Montgomery & Haemmerlie, 1993), sexual victimization (Abbey, 0306-4603/$ - see front matter D 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.addbeh.2005.03.004 T Corresponding author. E-mail address: judith.fischer@ttu.edu (J.L. Fischer). Addictive Behaviors 30 (2005) 1496 – 1516