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The Role of Family Conflict and School Problems in Adolescent Emotion Dynamics

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Abstract

Emotion dynamics have emerged as a transdiagnostic risk factor for psychopathology and mental health problems. However, despite their transdiagnostic importance, limited research has identified how emotion dynamics are shaped and characterized by adolescents’ daily family and school experiences. The present study explored whether interparental conflict, parent-adolescent conflict, and school problems were associated with adolescent emotion dynamics across positive emotions (PE) and negative emotions (NE). Participants were 163 adolescents between the ages of 12 and 14 (55% female; Mage = 12.79, SD = 0.73) and their parents who completed 10-day, twice-daily diary assessments recruited in Taiwan. Adolescents reported school problems and emotions in the afternoon, and parent-adolescent conflict and emotions in the evening, while parents reported interparental conflict in the evening. The results showed that interparental conflict was associated with greater NE intensity and variability, and lower PE intensity and inertia. Parent-adolescent conflict was associated with greater NE intensity, variability, and inertia, and lower PE intensity and greater PE inertia. School problems were associated with greater NE intensity, variability, and inertia, and lower PE intensity and greater PE variability and inertia. Furthermore, moderation tests indicated that interparental conflict was linked to NE intensity and school problems were linked to NE inertia only among adolescents with lower support seeking. The findings highlight the importance of daily family conflict and school problems in shaping adolescent emotion dynamics and underscore the protective role of support seeking in mitigating altered emotion dynamics against family conflict and school problems.

Highlights

  • Daily family conflicts and school problems are related to altered emotion dynamics.

  • Support seeking moderates the associations of family conflicts and school problems with altered emotion dynamics.

  • Evaluating emotional processes has the potential to reduce mental health problems among adolescents affected by family conflicts and school problems.

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Acknowledgements

S.-C.C. was supported by the Prevention and Methodology Training Program (T32 DA017629; MPIs: J. Maggs & S. Lanza) with funding from the National Institute on Drug Abuse. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institute on Drug Abuse or the National Institutes of Health. Data collection was supported by the Taiwan Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST 110-2410-H-004 -109 -). MOST had no role in the study design, collection, analysis, or interpretation of the data, writing the manuscript, or the decision to submit the paper for publication.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Human Development and Family Studies, The Pennsylvania State University, State College, PA, USA

    Shou-Chun Chiang

  2. Department of Educationn, National Chengchi University, Taipei, Taiwan

    Shi-Jane Ting & Wan-Chen Chen

  3. Department of Counseling and Applied Psychology, National Taichung University of Education, Taichung, Taiwan

    Ya-Feng Hung

  4. Center for Teacher Education, Natiional Sun Yat-sen University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan

    Yu-Hsien Sung

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Correspondence to Shou-Chun Chiang.

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The study was approved and followed by the Institutional Review Board of the National Chengchi University (NCCU-REC-202105-I038). The study is in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki. Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Chiang, SC., Ting, SJ., Hung, YF. et al. The Role of Family Conflict and School Problems in Adolescent Emotion Dynamics. J Child Fam Stud 33, 877–887 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-024-02797-z

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