Parent and sibling roles in adolescent anger

Today, we look at two articles related to teen behavior. First, Arbel (2024) published “Daily Profiles of Parents’ Supportive Extrinsic Emotion Regulation of Adolescents’ Negative Emotion” in Emotion. Here’s the edited abstract:

Parental support for adolescent emotion regulation is critical for adolescents’ health. Yet, little is known about parents’ daily support of adolescents’ emotion regulation. This study aimed to typify daily co-parent supportive extrinsic emotion regulation (EER) profiles directed toward adolescents’ daily distress and anger. The sample comprised 153 adolescent–parent triads; adolescents’ mean age, 15.71 years (SD = 1.53), 51% girls. Over 7 consecutive days, adolescents self-reported their distress and anger, while parents reported their own negative emotions and their perception of the adolescent’s negative emotions. Parents also reported daily on their utilization of seven supportive EER strategies, including problem- and emotion-focused strategies. Multilevel latent profile analysis (MLPA) identified four day-level profiles of parental EER; “low” (40% of days), reflecting low EER efforts of both parents across all EER strategies: “high” (12%), reflecting high EER involvement of both parents across all strategies; “mother-high father-low” (26%), reflecting mothers’ high and fathers’ low use of all strategies; “father-high mother-average” (22%), reflecting fathers’ high use of all strategies, and mothers’ low to average use of all strategies. The likelihood of specific EER profiles across days did not associate with daily changes in adolescents’ anger. However, on days when adolescents felt more distress, the likelihood of a “high” parental EER profile was significantly greater than “low.” Findings suggest a dynamic repertoire of co-parent EER profiles, responsive to adolescent heartfelt emotions but not hostility. The lack of parental EER of adolescents’ anger might put adolescents at increased risk for anger escalation and the unhealthy discharge of anger. 

I was drawn to the idea of supportive extrinsic emotion regulation strategies. Adolescence is rife with emotional volatility and parents can play supportive or obstructive roles. I find it reassuring that both moms and dads can play supportive roles when teens are distressed. However, the last sentence suggests that, even parents with good repertoires for managing teen distress don’t have effective strategies for dealing with their anger. The next study looks at the role of the sibling relationship. Gallagher, Updegraff, Padilla & McHale (2024) published “Sibling Relational Aggression: Developmental change and associations with family relationships across adolescence” in Journal of Family Psychology. The edited abstract follows: 

Sibling relational aggression is an understudied social and family process that is of developmental significance in adolescence, a period of interpersonal relationship development. This study examined developmental change in sibling relational aggression across adolescence and used multilevel actor–partner independence models to test its longitudinal associations with mother–adolescent, father–adolescent, and sibling relationship qualities. Participants were 196 adolescent (firstborn–secondborn) sibling pairs from predominantly White families who averaged 16.47 years (SD = .80) and 13.88 years (SD = 1.15) of age, respectively, at baseline. Data were collected separately from each sibling during home interviews at three timepoints, each spaced a year apart. Longitudinal growth modeling revealed declines in sibling relational aggression from early to late adolescence. Findings from longitudinal multilevel actor–partner independence models revealed a negative within-person (WP) effect of father–adolescent intimacy and a positive WP effect of father–adolescent conflict on sibling relational aggression: On occasions when adolescents reported lower intimacy or more conflict with their fathers than usual (compared to individuals’ own cross-time averages), adolescents reported experiencing more sibling relational aggression than usual. A between-person (BP) effect of mother–adolescent conflict also indicated that the cross-time average of mother–adolescent conflict was linked positively to the cross-time average of sibling relationship aggression. Primarily at the WP level, associations also emerged between lower sibling intimacy and higher sibling conflict and sibling relational aggression. For relationships with fathers and siblings, some effects were moderated by sibling structural characteristics. Discussion highlights the interplay of family relationship dynamics, including gender dynamics, and sibling relational aggression in adolescence. 

It makes sense to me that sibling relational aggression would decline, on average, from early to late adolescence as each sibling matures and establishes a more well-rounded identity. I am not surprised that, when teens report less intimacy and/or more conflict with their dads, there may well be more sibling relational aggression. Similarly, high mother-teen conflict correlated with more sibling relational aggression. This links nicely to Arbel’s study of parents with low use of extrinsic emotion regulation strategies. It also is predictable that siblings with low intimacy and high conflict have more relational aggression. Taken together, the studies suggest that family relational dynamics are important. We especially need more research on the predictors of angry and aggressive behavior in teens as well as what constitutes effective extrinsic emotion regulation strategies.