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Category: Hypothesis

Description: Development is an iterative dynamic process that unfolds over time. Few theories, however, discuss the speed of developmental processes. As an exemplary case, this study assessed reciprocal associations between parent-adolescent conflict and ill-being with daily, weekly, biweekly, monthly, bimonthly, and three-monthly intervals. A 100-day diary study (N=159, M=13.31 years, 62% girls, 89% Dutch) and a 26-wave bi-weekly study (N=253, M=14.37 years, 72% girls, 96% Dutch) were used. Multilevel structural equation modelling revealed that conflict predicted ill-being one month (β=.09) and three months later (β=.13). Reversely, ill-being predicted conflict one week (β=.07) and two weeks later (β=.08). Thus, transactional processes may function differently at different timescales, which has implications for expanding developmental theories about the timescales of relevant processes.