Parenting stress and child psychopathology are closely linked in parent-child dyads, but how the bidirectional association varies across childhood and adolescence, and shifts depending on maternal affection are not well understood. Guided by the transactional model of development, this longitudinal, prospective study examined the bidirectional relations between parenting stress and child internalizing and externalizing problems and investigated the moderating role of maternal affection from childhood to adolescence. Participants were from the Future of Families and Child Wellbeing Study, a diverse, nationally representative sample of 2,143 caregiving mothers who completed assessments at children ages 5, 9, and 15. Using cross-lagged panel modeling, we found bidirectional effects between parenting stress and child internalizing and externalizing problems. However, additional multigroup analyses showed that bidirectional associations depend on the levels of maternal affection. In the high maternal affection group, parenting stress at age 5 predicted higher internalizing and externalizing problems at age 9, and reverse child-to-parent paths were found from age 9 to age 15. In contrast, only one cross-lagged path was found in the low maternal affection group. Findings suggest that maternal affection can heighten the transactional associations between parenting stress and child psychopathology.

Introduction: In adolescence, life satisfaction is an early indicator of later psychological well‐being. However, researchers know little about how daily family relationships shape adolescent life satisfaction. The current study examined the day‐to‐day associations between parent–adolescent relationships and life satisfaction, and whether adolescent emotion dysregulation moderated these associations.Methods: A total of 191 adolescents (M_age = 12.93, SD_age = 0.75, 53% female) recruited from junior high schools in Taiwan participated in a 10‐day daily diary protocol. We conducted multilevel analyses to examine within‐family and between‐family processes.Results: At the within‐family level, adolescents reported higher life satisfaction on days when parent–adolescent closeness was higher, but lower life satisfaction on days when parent–adolescent conflict was higher. At the between‐family level, higher parent–adolescent closeness was associated with greater life satisfaction on average, while parent–adolescent conflict was not related to adolescent life satisfaction. Cross‐level interactions indicated that within‐family changes in parent–adolescent closeness and conflict were only associated with life satisfaction for adolescents with higher levels of emotion dysregulation, indicating emotion dysregulation may intensify the role of daily parent–adolescent relationships in shaping adolescent life satisfaction.Conclusions: This study expands current literature and provides novel evidence that changes in day‐to‐day parent–adolescent relationships have important implications for adolescent life satisfaction, especially for youth higher in emotion dysregulation. The findings underscore the importance of evaluating family and individual characteristics to better support adolescent well‐being.

Despite the importance of emotions in our daily lives, less is known about the role of emotional reactivity in suicidal risk. This brief study investigated whether emotional reactivity is associated with adolescent suicidal ideation six months later. Participants were 139 adolescents (55% female; M_age = 12.79, SD_age = 0.73) who completed baseline assessments, a 10-day daily diary protocol, and six-month follow-up assessments. Results showed that higher emotional reactivity indicated by increased negative emotions and decreased positive emotions was associated with a greater risk for suicidal ideation. The findings suggest that adolescents with greater emotional reactivity to daily school problems had elevated risks for suicidal ideation. This study supports the importance of emotional reactivity in daily life for preventing adolescent suicidal ideation.