Socioemotional flexibility in mother-daughter dyads: Riding the emotional rollercoaster across positive and negative contexts.

Abstract

Socioemotional flexibility is a dyad-level indicator of adaptive interpersonal emotion regulation, and involves the temporal dynamics of shifting in and out of emotion states over time and the range of emotional states expressed during interpersonal interactions. Higher flexibility is associated with better psychosocial adjustment. In line with the Flex3 model, flexibility during interactions between 96 mothers and their adolescent daughters (Mage = 13.99 years) at 2 different time scales were examined in the current study: (a) within positive and negative emotional contexts (dynamic flexibility); and (b) between positive and negative emotional contexts (reactive flexibility). Mothers and daughters completed the emotional rollercoaster task—a series of 5 3-min discussions on times they felt the following strong emotions toward each other: (a) happy/excited, (b) worried/sad, (c) proud, (d) frustrated/annoyed, and (e) grateful. In general, higher dynamic (within-discussion) flexibility and moderate levels of flexibility across discussions were associated with lower internalizing symptoms and higher relationship quality. Results support the Flex3 model and also suggest that in addition to emotional valence (positive vs. negative), specific emotion contexts (e.g., sad vs. frustrated) differentially influence socioemotional flexibility in mother–daughter dyads.