Within- and between-person associations between social interactions and loneliness: students' experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic introduced many restrictions to in-person interactions, and remote social interactions may be especially important for managing loneliness when such restrictions are in place. However, it is unclear how social interactions are related to loneliness when in-person interactions are limited. Data were collected between February 2021 and March 2022 from a sample of 581 university students. Participants reported their loneliness and participation in positive in-person or remote social interactions each day for 14 days. Results from dynamic structural equation models showed that participants felt less lonely than they usually felt on the days they engaged in positive remote interactions at the within-person level. Moreover, participants generally felt less lonely when engaging more frequently in remote interactions, but only when in-person interactions were restricted (between-person level). Some of these results varied by changing COVID-19 restrictions. Finally, for participants who felt lonelier in general, the effect of positive in-person and remote interactions on loneliness was less strong. These findings suggest that social interactions may buffer loneliness but are not as impactful for those who experience greater loneliness.

Longitudinal associations between mother-child conflict and child internalizing problems in mid-childhood.

Several aspects of mother-child relationships are associated with children's internalizing problems. We examined longitudinal associations between mother-child conflict and children's internalizing problems in middle childhood. Specifically, we examined whether conflict and children's internalizing problems predict each other longitudinally in a sample of children from 3rd through 6th grade (N = 1,364) and their mothers using a cross-lagged panel model with random intercepts. In line with expectations, we found stable between-family differences in both mother-child conflict and children's internalizing problems. Contrary to expectations, we did not find that mother-child conflict and children's internalizing problems showed significant cross-lagged associations. However, mother-child conflict and children's internalizing problems had correlated errors at each wave, indicating that these two constructs covary with each other concurrently at multiple times across development, independent of stable between-family associations (i.e., as one increases, so does the other, and vice versa). The results of this study point to the importance of using statistical approaches that can disentangle between-family differences from within-family processes. In future studies, shorter time scales (e.g., weeks or months) may better capture dynamic associations between parent-child conflict and internalizing problems.

Adolescent and Maternal Anxiety Symptoms Decreased but Depressive Symptoms Increased before to during COVID-19 Lockdown.

Mothers (n = 155) and their adolescent children (n = 146; aged 12-13 at pre-COVID wave [Time 1, September 2019 to March 2020]) repeated measures of anxiety and depressive symptoms, and details about the impacts of the pandemic and social distancing at Time 2 (May-June 2020). Average slopes of mother and adolescent depression increased but anxiety symptoms decreased from Time 1 to Time 2. Adolescent decreases in anxiety symptoms were driven by males, whereas depression increase was driven by females. Adolescents' depression slopes were steeper for those who reported more negative changes. Implications are discussed relative to findings from other regions and later phases of the pandemic.

Advancing models and methods of emotional concordance.

Emotional concordance refers to dynamic coordination of two or more components of the emotion system in response to environmental demands. Concordance can occur within a person (e.g., sympathetic arousal with a fearful expression) and between persons (e.g., similar emotional expressions in couples). This introduction to the 2021 special issue examines current models and methods of concordance. First, we highlight how emotion researchers have begun to focus on concordance across a range of populations and contexts. Second, we note concordance research benefits from examination of multiple emotion systems simultaneously (within- and/or between-persons), resulting in a multivariate time series. Finally, we describe recent efforts to understand the functional (e.g., health-related) consequences of concordance. The articles in this special issue collectively point toward exciting new directions in examining whether and when concordance occurs, and how it varies by individual differences, context, and measures.

Emotion socialization as a dynamic process across emotion contexts.

Emotion-related socialization behaviors that occur during parent-child interactions are dynamic. According to Eisenberg, Cumberland, and Spinrad's (1998) model, ongoing parental reactions to emotions and discussions of emotion indirectly shape children's socioemotional competence throughout childhood and adolescence. Typically developing adolescents-girls especially-are at increased risk for developing internalizing symptoms. We examined if and how emotion dynamics of mother-daughter interactions contribute to adolescent girls' internalizing symptoms. We applied grid-sequence analysis (Brinberg, Fosco, & Ram, 2017) to observational data obtained while N = 96 typically developing adolescent girls (Mage = 13.99 years) and their mothers engaged in 5 different emotionally-laden discussions. We identified patterns of expressed emotions that unfolded during each discussion and examined how interdyad differences in those patterns were associated with mothers' and daughters' internalizing symptoms. Dyads differed with respect to whether mothers or daughters tended to regulate positive emotion expressions. Interdyad differences in moment-to-moment dynamics of happy/excited and worried/sad discussions were associated with adolescent girls' social anxiety symptoms, although differences in emotion dynamics of proud, frustrated/annoyed, and grateful discussions were not. Taken together, results illustrate how methodological innovations are enabling new examination and detailed description of parent-child emotion socialization dynamics. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Mother-adolescent emotion dynamics during conflicts: Associations with perspective taking.

Parent-adolescent emotion dynamics are central to psychosocial adjustment during this developmental period. Perspective taking-the ability to take another's point of view into consideration-develops significantly during adolescence and is important for successful interpersonal functioning in contexts such as conflicts between family members. We used grid-sequence analysis (Brinberg, Fosco, & Ram, 2017) to examine interdyad differences in mother-adolescent emotion dynamics during a conflict discussion, and whether interdyad differences were associated with maternal and adolescent perspective taking. Mothers and their typically developing adolescents (N = 49, Mage = 14.84 years) were video-recorded during a 10-min conflict discussion. We identified patterns of multistep chains of expressed emotions that unfolded during the conflict and how interdyad differences in those patterns were associated with maternal and adolescent perspective taking. Dyads differed with respect to whether they showed turn taking in validation and interest behaviors, or whether they showed patterns of reciprocated negative affect. Higher adolescent but not maternal perspective taking was associated with dyadic turn taking of validation and interest. Maternal and adolescent perspective taking were not associated with the pattern of reciprocated negative affect. Taken together, results highlight the importance of examining the complex process of emotion dynamics in parent-adolescent interactions. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Development of Emotion Regulation Dynamics Across Early Childhood: a Multiple Time-Scale Approach.

Children should become more effective at regulating emotion as they age. Longitudinal evidence of such change, however, is scarce. This study uses a multiple-time scale approach to test the hypothesis that the self-regulation of emotion-the engagement of executive processes to influence the dynamics of prepotent emotional responses-becomes more effective as children move through early childhood. Second-by-second time-series data obtained from behavioral observation of 120 children (46% female) during an 8-min frustration-eliciting wait task completed at four ages (24 months, 36 months, 48 months, 5 years) were modeled using bivariate coupled differential equation models designed to capture age-related changes in the intrinsic dynamics and bidirectional coupling of prepotent and executive processes. Results revealed indirect influences of executive processes on the intrinsic dynamics of children's desire and frustration increased with age but also revealed complex and non-linear age-related changes in how specific aspects of the dynamic interplay between prepotent responses and executive processes influence the effectiveness of regulation at different ages. The findings illustrate the utility of using a dynamics system approach to articulate and study how specific aspects of emotion regulation change with age.

Parent-Adolescent Dyads as Temporal Interpersonal Emotion Systems.

Research on the role of parent-adolescent relationships in psychosocial adjustment needs a conceptual approach that specifies the processes by which development is nested in the relationship. I forward a new approach and emphasize the need to consider the unique elements that individuals bring to the dyadic system. I also emphasize the need to examine processes at multiple time scales. I highlight the complexity of dyadic system dynamics: Biological predispositions set the foundation for the parent-adolescent relationship and the emotion dynamics that emerge during interactions. As the system gets entrained through repeated interactions over longer time scales, real-time dynamics coalesce into psychosocial adjustment, which in turn constrains real-time dynamics. I review the evidence for each of these processes and discuss the implications.

Adolescents' emotion system dynamics: Network-based analysis of physiological and emotional experience.

An individual's emotions system can be conceived of as a synchronized, coordinated, and/or emergent combination of physiology, experience, and behavioral components. Together, the interplay among these components produce emotional experiences through coordinated excitatory positive feedback (i.e., the mutual amplification of emotion concordance) and/or inhibitory negative feedback (i.e., the damping of emotion regulation) processes. Different system configurations produce differential psychophysiological reactivity profiles, and by implication, differential moment-to-moment emotional experience and long-term development. Applying dynamic systems models to second-by-second psychophysiological and experience time-series data collected from 130 adolescents (age 12.0 to 16.7 years) completing a social stress-inducing speech task, we describe the configuration of adolescents' emotion systems, and examine how differences in the dynamic outputs of those systems (psychophysiological reactivity profile) are related to individual differences in trait anxiety. We found substantial heterogeneity in the coordination patterns of these adolescents. Some individuals' emotion systems were characterized by negative feedback loops (emotion regulation processes), many by unidirectionally connected or independent components, and a few by positive feedback loops (emotion concordance). The reactivity dynamics of respiratory sinus arrhythmia were related to adolescents' level of trait anxiety. Results highlight how dynamic systems models may contribute to our understanding of interindividual and developmental differences. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Timing of adolescent emotional disclosures: The role of maternal emotions and adolescent age.

Adolescent disclosure is a positive feature of parent-adolescent relationships, though disclosure to parents typically declines across adolescence. However, little is known about parental emotions that facilitate or inhibit real-time adolescent disclosures about their emotions and how parents respond to such disclosures during parent-adolescent interactions. The present study tested (1) whether maternal emotions were associated with the time to adolescents' spontaneous emotional disclosures and (2) whether these associations varied as a function of adolescent age. Adolescents (N = 49, Mage = 14.84 years) and their mothers participated in a 10-min conflict discussion. Adolescent emotional disclosures and maternal emotions were coded moment-to-moment. Results from survival analysis demonstrated that older adolescents whose mothers expressed high levels of negative affect or high levels of validation were more likely to make emotional disclosures earlier in the discussion than were older adolescents whose mothers expressed low negative affect or low validation. There were no differences in associations between maternal emotions and the timing of emotional disclosures for younger adolescents. Findings suggest that a range of maternal emotions (validation and negative affect) might be features of high-quality mother-adolescent relationships in older adolescence, when parent-adolescent relationships are more egalitarian and negative emotions may be more readily expressed. Implications for applying observational methodologies and dynamic statistical techniques to the adolescent disclosure literature are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Multilevel survival analysis: Studying the timing of children's recurring behaviors.

The timing of events (e.g., how long it takes a child to exhibit a particular behavior) is often of interest in developmental science. Multilevel survival analysis (MSA) is useful for examining behavioral timing in observational studies (i.e., video recordings) of children's behavior. We illustrate how MSA can be used to answer 2 types of research questions. Specifically, using data from a study of 117 children 36 months old (SD = .38) during a frustration task, we examined the timing of their recurring anger expressions, and how this is related to (a) negative affectivity, a dimension of temperament related to the ability to regulate emotions, and (b) children's strategy use (distraction, bids to their mother). Contrary to expectations, negative affectivity was not associated with the timing of children's recurring anger expressions. As expected, children's recurring anger expressions were less likely to occur in the seconds when children were using a distraction strategy, whereas they were more likely when children made bids to their mother. MSA is a flexible analytic technique that, when applied to observational data, can yield valuable insights into the dynamics of children's behaviors. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

Emotional development in the context of mother-child relationships.

Emotions are generated and regulated in the context of close relationships, such as mother-child relationships. Children's emotional development is primarily directed by mother-child emotional processes. In the current review, we examine the advances in understanding how mother-child relationships impact emotion development. In particular, we explore novel and advanced techniques in measurement and design, autonomic psychophysiology, the structure of emotion socialization, and modeling of parent-child dynamics. As these innovations continue to progress, we expect that theoretical models of emotional development will be further refined.

Socioemotional flexibility in mother-daughter dyads: Riding the emotional rollercoaster across positive and negative contexts.

Socioemotional flexibility is a dyad-level indicator of adaptive interpersonal emotion regulation, and involves the temporal dynamics of shifting in and out of emotion states over time and the range of emotional states expressed during interpersonal interactions. Higher flexibility is associated with better psychosocial adjustment. In line with the Flex3 model, flexibility during interactions between 96 mothers and their adolescent daughters (Mage = 13.99 years) at 2 different time scales were examined in the current study: (a) within positive and negative emotional contexts (dynamic flexibility); and (b) between positive and negative emotional contexts (reactive flexibility). Mothers and daughters completed the emotional rollercoaster task­a series of 5 3-min discussions on times they felt the following strong emotions toward each other: (a) happy/excited, (b) worried/sad, (c) proud, (d) frustrated/annoyed, and (e) grateful. In general, higher dynamic (within-discussion) flexibility and moderate levels of flexibility across discussions were associated with lower internalizing symptoms and higher relationship quality. Results support the Flex3 model and also suggest that in addition to emotional valence (positive vs. negative), specific emotion contexts (e.g., sad vs. frustrated) differentially influence socioemotional flexibility in mother­daughter dyads.

Maternal Regulation of Daughters' Emotion During Conflicts From Early to Mid-Adolescence.

Primary caregivers play an important role in emotion socialization. Real-time mother-daughter emotion socialization was examined in 45 mother-daughter dyads with early-adolescent daughters (age M = 11.80, SD = .27) at the first observation point. Maternal supportive emotion regulation and daughters' emotions were coded during two conflict discussions, 2 years apart. With multilevel survival analysis, the likelihood of maternal supportiveness was predicted both over time, between early and mid-adolescence, and by daughters' pubertal status. Mothers were more likely to respond to daughters' negative and positive emotions with supportiveness for daughters whose pubertal maturation occurred relatively early. Results suggest that mothers adjust their socialization of daughters' emotions according to their daughters' pubertal development.

Sharing the burden: The interpersonal regulation of emotional arousal in mother-daughter dyads.

According to social baseline theory (Beckes & Coan, 2011), load sharing is a feature of close relationships whereby the burden of emotional distress is distributed across relationship partners. Load sharing varies by physical closeness and relationship quality. We investigated the effect of load sharing on emotional arousal via galvanic skin response, an indicator of sympathetic nervous system arousal, during a social stressor. Social stress was elicited in 66 adolescent girls (Mage = 15 years) using a spontaneous public-speaking task. Mother-daughter dyads reported their relationship quality, and physical closeness was manipulated by having mothers either touch or not touch their daughter's hand during the performance. We found evidence of load sharing among dyads who held hands, independent of relationship quality. However, without physical contact, load sharing was only evident among dyads with higher relationship quality. Thus, high relationship quality buffers against threat in a similar way to the physical comfort of a loved one.

Maternal and Peer Regulation of Adolescent Emotion: Associations with Depressive Symptoms.

Emotion socialization by close relationship partners plays a role in adolescent depression. In the current study, a microsocial approach was used to examine how adolescents' emotions are socialized by their mothers and close friends in real time, and how these interpersonal emotion dynamics are related to adolescent depressive symptoms. Participants were 83 adolescents aged 16 to 17 years who participated in conflict discussions with their mothers and self-nominated close friends. Adolescents' positive and negative emotions, and mothers' and peers' supportive regulation of adolescent emotions, were coded in real time. Two multilevel survival analyses in a 2-level Cox hazard regression framework predicted the hazard rate of (1) mothers' supportive regulation of adolescents' emotions, and (2) peers' supportive regulation of adolescents' emotions. The likelihood of maternal supportiveness, regardless of adolescent emotions, was lower for adolescents with higher depressive symptoms. In addition, peers were less likely to up-regulate adolescent positive emotions at higher levels of adolescent depressive symptoms. The results of the current study support interpersonal models of depression and demonstrate the importance of real-time interpersonal emotion processes in adolescent depressive symptoms.

Maternal regulation of child affect in externalizing and typically-developing children.

Temporal contingencies between children's affect and maternal behavior play a role in the development of children's externalizing problems. The goal of the current study was to use a microsocial approach to compare dyads with externalizing dysregulation (N =191) to healthy controls (N = 54) on maternal supportive regulation of children's negative and positive affect. Children were between the ages of 8 and 12 years. Mother-child dyads participated in conflict and positive discussions, and child affect and maternal supportive affect regulation were coded in real time. First, no group differences on overall levels of mother supportive regulation or child affect were found. Second, three event history analyses in a 2-level Cox hazard regression framework were used to predict the hazard rate of (a) maternal supportiveness, and of children's transitions (b) out of negative affect and (c) into positive affect. The hazard rate of maternal supportiveness, regardless of child affect, was not different between groups. However, as expected, the likelihood of mothers' supportive responses to children's negative affect was lower in externalizing than comparison dyads. In addition, children with externalizing problems were significantly less likely than typically developing children to transition out of negative affect in response to maternal supportiveness. The likelihood of both typically developing children and children with externalizing problems transitioning into positive affect were not related to specific occurrences of maternal supportiveness. Results of the current study show the importance of temporal dynamics in mother-child interactions in the emergence of children's externalizing problems.

Beyond storm and stress: Typicality, transactions, timing, and temperament to account for adolescent change.

Adolescent "storm and stress" has been a focal yet controversial developmental framework for over a century. In the present article, we challenge the current perspective that storm and stress is neither ubiquitous nor inevitable but probable. Instead, we argue, storm and stress is a vestigial developmental framework, and we propose a more comprehensive approach to understanding adolescent-typical changes based on six premises: (1) The biological changes of adolescence are inevitable and ubiquitous; (2) adolescent biological changes drive various mechanisms of adolescent behavior; (3) adolescent biological changes are shaped by environmental influences; (4) individual differences in adolescent emotional-behavior changes are domain specific and vary in intensity; (5) there are individual differences in the age of onset and duration of periods of adolescent change; and (6) individual differences in the duration and intensity of transitions in emotional arousal are functionally modulated by burgeoning emotion regulation skills. We conclude with the more comprehensive 4T (typicality, transactions, temperament, and timing) approach and suggestions to guide adolescent research in the 21st century.