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Bidirectional spillover across days between family assistance and physical health experiences during adolescence.

Emma L Armstrong-CarterEva H Telzer
Published in: Journal of family psychology : JFP : journal of the Division of Family Psychology of the American Psychological Association (Division 43) (2021)
Helping the family may either promote or undermine adolescents' physical health and well-being. Adolescents (N = 396, 58% female, Mage = 14.57 years) completed diary checklists for 14 days, reporting whether they provided instrumental assistance (e.g., tangible tasks) and emotional support (e.g., listening, giving advice) to family, as well as their amount of physical activity, sleep, and physical symptoms (e.g., headache, backpain) each day. After providing emotional support, adolescents slept more that night and experienced fewer physical symptoms the next day, over and above prior day levels. When adolescents provided instrumental assistance on school days (but not nonschool days), they engaged in less physical activity that day. These results were consistent across individual differences in gender, age, socioeconomic status, and ethnicity. In addition, bidirectional associations emerged such that adolescents were more likely to provide instrumental assistance on days after they slept more. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).
Keyphrases
  • physical activity
  • sleep quality
  • mental health
  • young adults
  • body mass index
  • healthcare
  • public health
  • depressive symptoms
  • emergency department
  • human health