Daily emotional experiences of adolescents from Chinese, Mexican, and European backgrounds

This study utilized a daily diary methodology to examine the emotional experiences of ethnically diverse adolescents. The sample consisted of 589 ninth-grade students from Chinese, Mexican, and European American backgrounds. The average levels and variability in adolescents' daily emotions, as well as the daily-level associations between adolescents' emotions and everyday social and academic events were observed. The emotional experiences of adolescents showed remarkable similarities, along with some distinct differences according to ethnicity and gender. Ethnic differences in patterns of responding to daily events appeared to some extent to reflect traditions associated with adolescents' cultural backgrounds. However, they challenged a unidimensional definition of cultural influence.; In general, Mexican Americans were more reactive to family events and European Americans were more reactive to friend events, whereas, Chinese Americans did not consistently show greater domain-specific reactivity. For the most part, these ethnic differences remained when accounting for socioeconomic status. And they could not be explained by adolescents' values regarding family, friends, and academics. Females were generally more reactive to events across all three domains, as compared to males. Findings indicated that adolescents share common experiences and emotions in their daily lives, although, what elicits a particular emotion differs to some extent according to cultural background. Adolescents' emotional reactivity to such daily events has implications for their well-being and adjustment.