Bidirectional associations between parent–adolescent and peer conflict: The role of parent and adolescent emotions.

= 1.47; 58% female; 34.6% White/European American, 28.2% Hispanic/Latinx, 23.1% African American/Black, 11.5% Asian American, and 2.6% multiracial). Cross-lagged analyses found bidirectional associations between parent-adolescent and peer conflict. Greater parent-adolescent conflict predicted greater peer conflict the following day, and greater peer conflict similarly predicted greater parent-adolescent conflict the next day. Parent-adolescent conflict was also associated with increased adolescent negative emotion, which predicted higher parent negative emotion the following day; increased parent negative emotion, in turn, predicted greater subsequent parent-adolescent conflict. This indirect pathway did not extend to adolescents' peer conflict. Positive emotion did not mediate associations between family and peer conflict. These findings extend spillover-crossover theory by identifying adolescent-to-parent negative emotion contagion as a dyadic process that may sustain parent-adolescent conflict across days. The study suggests that emotion contagion is more evident within the family dyad than as a mechanism linking family and peer conflict. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).