Psychological Reactivity to Daily Family Experiences During Adolescence: Individual Differences and Developmental Stability

Abstract

The current study examined adolescent psychological reactivity to daily family experiences, an important feature of emotion regulation that could have significant implications for psychopathology. A total of 428 Mexican‐heritage adolescents (Mage = 15.02 years, range: 13–18 years) completed daily diary checklists for 14 days and again 1 year later. Results revealed that adolescents’ family experiences were associated with negative mood, positive mood, and role fulfillment on a daily basis. Only role fulfillment reactivity was stable across 1 year, suggesting instability in individual differences in positive and negative mood reactivity. Sex moderated the relation between positive and negative mood reactivity during the second year of study, with males exhibiting broad psychological reactivity to daily family experiences. However, females who experienced higher negative mood reactivity exhibited less positive mood reactivity. Implications for possible sex differences in depression risk during the high school years are discussed.

The Mediation of Family Context and Youth Depressive Symptoms by Adolescent Emotion Regulation

“…On the other hand, Cui et al (2014) found that psychologically controlling parenting resulted in more aggressive behavior among older adolescents with lower anger regulation compared to younger adolescents, although there were no direct age differences in anger and sadness regulation. Moreover, Kim and Fuligni’s (2020) two-wave daily diary study of 13- to 18-year-old adolescents of Mexican heritage found no age difference in the relationship between emotional reactivity, defined as the association between family demands and negative mood, and between family positive interactions and positive mood. However, they also found that adolescents’ emotional reactivity to positive and negative family events was not stable within 1 year.…”