Daily Associations Between Parental Warmth and Discipline and Adolescent Conduct Problems and Callous-Unemotional Traits

Past longitudinal research has demonstrated links between parenting behaviors and adolescentconduct problems (CP) and callous-unemotional (CU) traits on macro timescales (e.g., years).Less is known about daily fluctuations in parenting behaviors and adolescent CP and CU traits,as well as their daily associations on a micro timescale. This study investigated daily reciprocalassociations between three key dimensions of parenting behaviors— parental warmth,inconsistent discipline, and non-harsh discipline—and adolescent CP and CU traits, and exploredpotential moderating effects of person-mean levels of these parenting behaviors on within-personcross-day links. Participants included an ethnically-racially diverse low risk community sampleof 86 adolescents (Mage = 14.5 years, 55% female, 45% non-White) who completed dailyreports over one month regarding their perceived parenting behaviors and their own levels of CPand CU traits (2,056 total observations). Results from dynamic structural equation modelingshowed that at the within-person level, higher than average levels of inconsistent discipline werelinked to higher than average levels of CU traits the next day. Among adolescents with higherperson-mean levels of parental warmth and non-harsh discipline, daily parental warmth and non-harsh discipline were protective against CU traits. Moreover, among adolescents with higherperson-mean levels of parental warmth, adolescent CU traits also evoked lower parental warmththe next day. These findings have significant implications for understanding daily fluctuations inparenting behaviors and adolescent CP and CU traits, and inform novel parenting-basedinterventions that capitalize on recent advances in mobile and other technology.