Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 22, 2026
08:09
Psychophysiological Assessment of the Effectiveness of Emotion Regulation Strategies in Childhood
Published on: February 11, 2017
Adolescents' emotional reactivity across relationship contexts
Emily C Cook1, Cheryl Buehler, Bethany L Blair
1Department of Psychology, 600 Mount Pleasant Avenue, Rhode Island College, Providence, RI 02908, USA. ecook@ric.edu
Developmental Psychology
|May 2, 2012
Summary
Adolescents
Area of Science:
- Developmental Psychology
- Adolescent Psychology
- Family Studies
Background:
- Adolescence is a critical period for developing emotional regulation skills.
- Emotional reactivity within the family context can influence social relationships.
- Understanding cross-contextual emotional reactivity is crucial for adolescent development.
Purpose of the Study:
- To examine adolescents' emotional reactivity across family, friendship, and romantic relationships.
- To investigate the prospective associations between emotional reactivity in different interpersonal contexts.
- To explore gender differences in the relationship between emotional reactivity and conflict.
Main Methods:
- Longitudinal study with 416 two-parent families.
- Six waves of annual data collection.
- Structural equation modeling (SEM) to analyze prospective associations.
Main Results:
- Early adolescent emotional reactivity to interparental conflict predicted later reactivity in friendships and romantic relationships.
- Friendship emotional reactivity partially mediated the link between family and romantic relationship reactivity.
- The association between emotional reactivity and conflict was more pronounced in girls.
Conclusions:
- Adolescents' emotional reactivity is not isolated to one context but extends across significant relationships.
- Family dynamics, particularly interparental conflict, play a role in shaping adolescents' emotional responses in peer and romantic relationships.
- Interventions targeting emotional regulation in early adolescence may benefit relationship development across multiple contexts, with potential gender-specific considerations.
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