Biased and Inflexible Interpretations of Social Situations Predict Affect Intensity and Variability in Children and Adolescents

Adolescence is a developmental period characterized by heightened emotionality. Past research indicated that the biased interpretation of social situations (i.e., interpretation bias) might contribute to these aberrant affect dynamics in adolescents’ daily life. Social situations are, however, constantly changing. Therefore, the ability to flexibly revise social interpretations (i.e., interpretation flexibility) might be equally important as interpretation biases for explaining affective outcomes during adolescence. The present study examined whether interpretation bias and inflexibility predicted two major affect dynamics features (i.e., mean and standard deviation) in children and adolescents. At baseline, N = 154 children and adolescents (M = 12.81 years; 48.70% female; 49.35% male; 1.95% non-binary; 72.08% White) completed a task assessing bias and inflexibility in interpreting social situations. Then, for 28 days, participants rated their positive and negative affect. Results showed that inflexibility in revising positive and negative interpretations in light of disconfirming evidence predicted higher intensity of negative affect. When controlling for interpretation inflexibility, positive interpretation bias predicted higher positive affect, whereas negative interpretation bias was associated with more variable negative affect. The results emphasize the predictive utility of interpretation biases and inflexibility for daily affective experiences in youths.