Concurrent and Lagged Synchrony in Parents’ and Adolescents’ Daily Positive and Negative Affect: Distinct Predictors Across Synchrony Types

Most research on parent–adolescent emotion dynamics has relied on brief laboratory paradigms, which provide limited insight into whether affective synchrony unfolds in everyday life and what factors drive its patterns. In this pre-registered study, a community sample (69.5% Caucasian, 10.9% Black, 7.3% Bi/Multiracial, 12.3% other races) of 112 adolescents (M = 14.13 years, SD = 1.74, Range = 12–18; 61 female, 49 male, 2 nonbinary) and 108 of their parents (M = 43.98 years, SD = 6.00, Range = 33–64; 96 female, 12 male) completed baseline measures of closeness, responsiveness, insensitivity, depressive symptoms, and social anxiety symptoms. Then, for 28 days, participants reported their positive affect (PA) and negative affect (NA). We used Bayesian LMEM to quantify concurrent synchrony in PA and NA and test whether baseline measures predicted each type of synchrony. Results confirmed that parents and adolescents exhibited concurrent synchrony in their daily PA (β = 0.228) and NA (β = 0.278). Concurrent synchrony in PA and NA were differentially predicted by adolescents’ (but usually not parents’) perceptions of their relationship and social anxiety symptoms. Exploratory analyses examining lagged synchrony evidenced similar effects. In addition to advancing theoretical understanding of parent–adolescent emotion dynamics, these findings suggest that the dissociability of positive and negative emotions may extend to dyadic affective processes.