The research is described in a series of articles published this month in the Journal of Marriage and the Family that highlight the chain reaction of distress that can move through a family. It offers a new model for understanding and predicting how a person s daily mood impacts others, said the lead editors of the reports, David Almeida of the University of Arizona and Reed Larson of the University of Illinois,who also co-authored three of the reports. We all have bad days and negative interactions, Almeida said. This work brings new awareness that being in a negative mood, being unaccessible or generally grouchy can have a noxious effect on the well-being of our families. Negative emotions such as depression and anxiety are more likely to transfer.
Bad feelings tend to be more potent and have longer-lasting effects than positive emotions.
None of the studies found evidence of contagious joy in families. Fathers bringing home negative emotions from work that affect other family members are a common pattern. Regardless of family structure, one-parent or two parent, women appear better able to contain work stress and may even strive to compensate for a bad day at work with positive encounters with children and spouse at home. In situations where there is clearly an understandable reason for negative emotions, family members tend to give one another some slack, and emotions are less likely to be transferred. We know from long study that distressed parents tend to have distressed children, Almeida said.