Daily association between parent‐adolescent emotion contagion: The role of parent‐adolescent connectednesss

Abstract

Emotion contagion between parents and adolescents is crucial for understanding adolescents' emotional experiences. However, little is known about how emotion contagion unfolds in daily life and the unique contributions of parent‐adolescent relationships. This study examines the associations between parent and adolescent positive and negative emotions, and the moderating role of daily parent‐adolescent connectedness. Participants were 191 Taiwanese adolescents (Mage = 12.93; SDage = 0.75; 53% female) and their parents who completed 10‐day diary reports of emotions and parent‐adolescent connectedness. Results indicate that higher daily parent negative emotions were associated with more adolescent negative emotions, and higher average parent negative emotions were associated with greater average negative emotions and fewer positive emotions in adolescents. Similar bidirectional effects were also found in adolescent‐to‐parent emotion contagion. Moreover, on days when connectedness was high, parent negative emotions were not associated with adolescent negative emotions but were related to increased positive emotions. Parent positive emotions were related to more positive emotions and fewer negative emotions when connectedness was low. The findings provide important insights into daily parent‐adolescent emotion contagion and highlight parent‐adolescent connectedness as a modifying factor in shaping dyadic emotional processes.