“Timescales, Timing, Dosage, and Both Parents: A Multi-Informant, Multi-Study Investigation of Intergenerational Psychopathology Transmission”

This study examines day-to-day emotional dynamics between Chinese parents and adolescents using a 21-day daily diary design and dynamic structural equation modeling. Analyzing 113 father–adolescent and 132 mother–adolescent dyads, the authors separate within- and between-family emotional processes. Results show that, at the within-family level, maternal anxiety and negative affect predict adolescents’ next-day symptoms, whereas no such effects emerge for fathers. Contemporaneous cofluctuations appear only in mother–adolescent dyads. Effects are highly heterogeneous across families, and hypothesized parenting mediators are unsupported. Findings suggest that intergenerational transmission operates at micro timescales and is stronger for mothers.

本研究采用21天每日日记设计（21-day daily diary design）与动态结构方程建模（dynamic structural equation modeling），探讨中国父母与青少年之间的日常情绪动态。研究共分析113对父亲-青少年二人组（dyads）与132对母亲-青少年二人组，作者分离出家庭内与家庭间的情绪过程。结果显示，在家庭内水平上，母亲的焦虑与负性情绪可预测青少年次日的情绪症状，而父亲未表现出此类效应；同步共变现象仅出现于母亲-青少年二人组中。不同家庭间的效应存在高度异质性，且本研究提出的养育中介假设未获支持。研究结果表明，代际传递以微观时间尺度运作，且对母亲群体的效应更强。