California Center for Population Research

This study used a daily diary method to examine a bidirectional spillover of conflict between the family and peer domains among 578 adolescents in the ninth grade from Chinese, Mexican, and European backgrounds. Overall, we found support for the bidirectional nature of the daily spillover between family and peer conflict across gender, ethnicity, and generation. Adolescents’ emotional distress partially explained the short term spillover between family and peer conflict. In addition, a longitudinal spillover was observed across the four years of high school across domains. Significance of these findings and suggestions for future research are presented. Keywords: family conflict, peer conflict, adolescents, emotional distress, daily diary