I love you no matter what: Negative relationship quality and daily encounters in the parent–child tie and their implications for daily mood across the lifespan

Abstract

Parent–child relationship quality has critical implications for parental emotional well-being across the lifespan. The present study assessed how relationship quality is related to daily encounters between parents and children, how those encounters are linked with parents' mood, and how these associations vary by age. Participants (N = 129, ages 33–91) reported baseline relationship quality with a total of 337 children (ages 1–69). In ecological momentary assessments, participants reported encounters with their children and their mood every 3 h for 4 days (N = 2220). Analyses revealed that relationship quality was not associated with whether parents had contact with their children. More negative relationship quality was positively associated with unpleasant encounters and negatively associated with pleasant encounters with children. Pleasant encounters with a child were associated with a more positive mood regardless of relationship quality. Unpleasant encounters were associated with a more negative mood, particularly when parents had a more negative relationship with their children. These associations varied significantly by age. Parents were more likely to have contact with more irritating adolescent children than less irritating adolescents and were less likely to have unpleasant encounters with children in emerging adulthood compared to childhood. Older parents' moods were not as strongly associated with unpleasant encounters, though the likelihood of experiencing unpleasant encounters was more closely tied to relationship quality for older parents than younger parents. These findings have important implications for understanding the relationship between family conflict and emotional well-being across the life course.