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

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.