How Do You Feel After Daily Surveys? Patterns of Parent-Adolescent Connection During Daily Diary Participation

Parent-adolescent connection is important for adolescent psychological well-being and development. However, limited research has investigated whether the desire for connection after completing daily surveys would vary over the study period, as well as whether desire would translate to everyday actions of connection initiation. This study examined the associations between study time and desire for connection as well as between desire for connection and next-day initiation of connection. Participants were 90 Taiwanese adolescents (Mage = 15.62; SDage = 0.51; 60% female) and their primary caregivers (Mage = 41.81; SDage = 4.09; 81% mothers) who completed a 14-day diary protocol. Results indicated that both adolescents and parents reported increasing levels of desire for connection after completing daily surveys across the study period. Moreover, on days when desire for connection was high, parents and adolescents were more likely to initiate connection on the following day. The findings are consistent with the possibility that completing daily surveys may heighten attention to parent-adolescent relationships, which in turn may be associated with greater desire for connection and subsequent connection initiation. This study highlights the need for further research on the potential benefits of participation in daily diaries.