(PS8-B36) The Ripple Effect of Stress: Using Audio Coding and Intensive Data Design to Understand Family Stress Contagion

According to the stress spillover-crossover theory, external stressors (e.g., daily hassles) that caregivers experience can lead to deleterious cascading effects within the family system (e.g., disrupted parenting, family conflict), which ultimately negatively impact child functioning and family relationship dynamics. The caregiver’s ability to regulate their own emotions during an interaction or conflict with their child (i.e., emotion regulation) can result in positive or negative parent-child interactions and either act as a protective factor (i.e., buffering the impact of daily hassles on the association between parent and child stress) or alternatively act as a risk factor (i.e., heightening the interaction between daily hassles on the association between parent and child stress). To explore whether caregiver emotion regulation and daily hassles impact daily parent-child interactions and ultimately child affect, we modeled questionnaires related to caregiver emotion regulation and daily surveys assessing caregiver stress, child stress, and daily hassles, as well as coded behaviors related to daily communication (i.e., criticism). Families completed an at-home study that assessed family behavior and mood states in daily life. As part of the at-home study, caregivers completed an initial visit that comprised of caregiver and child questionnaires related to their family and individual functioning. After the initial visit, caregivers completed surveys twice per day for two consecutive months on the TIES Lab Colliga App using their personal phone or a loaner phone. Ecological Momentary Assessments (EMAs) prompted caregivers to record caregiver mood and behavior, partner mood and behavior, child mood and behavior, and daily hassles. Audio recordings were collected twice per day via the Colliga App, and researchers listened to and coded audio files for parent-child interactions (i.e., positive, and negative communication, conflict). Planned analyses include multilevel structural equation models testing (1) daily covariation in parental stress and child stress, (2) whether daily hassles moderate the association between parent-child stress, and (3) if caregiver emotion regulation moderates the association between daily hassles and parent-child stress. We hypothesize that increased daily caregiver stress will be associated with increased child stress and daily hassles will heighten the linkage between parent-child stress. Furthermore, we expect that caregiver emotion dysregulation will heighten the link between daily hassles and parent-child stress. The combination of using mobile technology and passive sensors to characterize patterns of emotional regulation and stress in daily life will provide a rich understanding of the dynamic daily patterns of parent-child interactions. Future research could then develop interventions to target these distinct emotion regulation patterns and thus improve parent-child interactions.