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Purpose COVID-19 has led to soaring unemployment rates and the widespread adoption of working-from-home (WFH) arrangements that have disrupted family relationships and adolescent psychological well-being. This longitudinal study investigated how parental employment status (i.e., job loss and WFH) influenced adolescents' daily affect indirectly through family functioning (i.e., parent-adolescent conflict and parental warmth) and whether these links varied by family's socioeconomic status. Methods Daily-diary approaches were used to collect dyadic parent-adolescent data from a nationwide American sample (6,524 daily assessments from 447 parent-adolescent dyads; 45% black, 36% white, 10% Latinx, 7% Asian American, 2% Native American) over the course of 15 consecutive days at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Results Parents who experienced job loss demonstrated increases in parent-child conflict, which in turn predicted decreases in child positive affect and increases in child negative affect. Furthermore, parents' WFH status predicted increases in parental warmth, which in turn predicted increases in child positive affect and decreases in child negative affect. Parents of low-income families were more likely to experience job loss (24% vs. 13%) and less likely to WFH (44% vs. 73%) than middle-high income parents. Conclusions Adolescents from families facing economic hardship and employment shifts during COVID-19 experienced changes in parent-child relational dynamics that influenced their emotional well-being. Recognizing these shifts in family ecology is critical to health providers' ability to screen for mental health, assess existing family supports, and provide timely, targeted information about stress management and contending with family conflict.

Background COVID-19 has introduced novel stressors into American adolescents’ lives. Studies have shown that adolescents adopt an array of coping mechanisms and social supports when contending with stress. It is unclear, though, which strategies are most effective in mitigating daily pandemic-related stress, as few micro-longitudinal studies have explored adolescents’ daily affect during COVID-19. Parental support may also be a critical component of adolescents’ pandemic-related coping, as adolescents’ peer networks have been limited by public health measures. Methods This longitudinal study examined links between stress, coping, parental support, and affect across 14 consecutive days and 6216 assessments from a national sample of adolescents (N=444; Mage=15.0; 60% female; 44% Black/African American, 39% White/Europen American, 9% Latinx, 6% Asian American, 2% Native American) during school closures and state-mandated stay-at-home orders between April 8 and April 21, 2021. Results Adolescents’ health and financial stress predicted increases in same-day (health stress’ effect size = .16; financial stress’ effect size = .11) and next-day negative affect (health stress’ effect size = .05; financial stress’ effect size = .08). Adolescents’ secondary control engagement coping predicted increases in same-day (effect size = .10) and next-day (effect size = .04) positive affect and moderated the link between health stress and negative affect. Parental social support predicted increases in same-day (effect size = .26) and next-day (effect size = .06) positive affect and decreases in same-day (effect size = .17) negative affect and moderated the link between financial stress and negative affect. Limitations Results are indicative of conditions at the immediate onset of COVID-19 and should be interpreted as such. Conclusions Findings provide information as to how health providers and parents can help adolescents mitigate the impact of COVID-19-related health and economic stressors on their psychological well-being. It remains critical to monitor the psychosocial impact of the pandemic on adolescents’ affect while continuing to identify personal and environmental protective factors for reducing harm and maximizing resilience.

Adolescents are at risk for violating COVID-19 social distancing measures owing to salient developmental needs for autonomy and relatedness. This intensive longitudinal study investigated the initiation and sustainment of adolescents' daily social distancing behaviors.Focus group and daily-diary approaches were used to collect 6,216 assessments from a nationwide American adolescent sample (n = 444; MWhen adolescents were motivated by preventing others from getting sick, they were more likely to engage in social distancing (same day: B = .50, SE = .09, 95% confidence interval [CI] [.32, .68] p.001; next day: B = .49, SE = .09, 95% CI [.31, .67] p.001). Daily social support from friends (same day: B = .04, SE = .02, 95% CI [.01, .08] p.05; next day: B = .08, SE = .02, 95% CI [.05, .12] p.001), connectedness with friends via technology (same day: B = .23, SE = .04, 95% CI [.14, .32] p.001; next day: B = .12, SE = .05, 95% CI [.03, .21] p.001), and practical knowledge about ways to prevent contracting and transmitting COVID-19 (same day: B = .12, SE = .02, 95% CI [.08, .17] p.001; next day: B = .05, SE = .02, 95% CI [.01, .10] p.05) positively predicted adolescents' same- and next-day engagement in social distancing.Adolescents who were motivated by the desire to protect others were more likely to engage in social distancing. In addition, adolescents who learned about preventative health behaviors for mitigating COVID-19, received peer support, and remained virtually connected with friends were more likely to engage in daily social distancing at the onset of the pandemic.

Socially anxious youth are at an increased risk for academic underachievement, withdrawal from school, and negative peer relationships. Given that learning tasks in science classes rely heavily on peer collaboration and social skills, this study aimed to investigate the link between high-school adolescents’ social anxiety and their science achievement while also determining whether and how peer social support and social engagement mediated the relation. Data was collected from 805 high-school students (48.7% female; 30.9% in 9th, 24.0% in 10th, 25.3% in 11th, 19.8% in 12th grade; 51.2% White, 29.8% Black, 11.4% Biracial, 7.6% Other). The results showed that socially anxious adolescents were more likely to report lower social engagement, which in turn predicted lower science performance. In addition, adolescents with social anxiety tended to experience less peer social support, which led to lower social engagement and subsequent lower science performance. These findings have important implications for guiding teaching practice and school-based interventions that support socially anxious adolescents in learning tasks.