Ecological Momentary Assessments (i.e., EMA, repeated assessments in daily life) are widespread in many fields of psychology and related disciplines. Yet, little knowledge exists on how differences ...in study designs and samples predict study compliance and dropout—two central parameters of data quality in (micro-)longitudinal research. The current meta-analysis included k = 477 articles (496 samples, total N = 677,536). For each article, we coded the design, sample characteristics, compliance, and dropout rate. The results showed that on average EMA studies scheduled six assessments per day, lasted for 7 days, and obtained a compliance of 79%. Studies with more assessments per day scheduled fewer assessment days, yet, the number of assessments did not predict compliance or dropout rates. Compliance was significantly higher in studies providing financial incentives. Otherwise, design or sample characteristics had little effects. We discuss the implications of the findings for planning, reporting, and reviewing EMA studies.
Various theoretical accounts suggest that within-person effects relating to everyday experiences (assessed, e.g., via experience sampling studies or daily diary studies) are a central element for ...understanding between-person differences in future outcomes. In this regard, it is often assumed that the within-person effect of a time-varying predictor X on a time-varying mediator M contributes to the long-term development in an outcome variable Y. In the present work, we demonstrate that traditional multilevel mediation approaches fall short in capturing the proposed mechanism, however. We suggest that a model in which between-person differences in the strength of within-person effects predict the outcome Y mediated via mean levels in M more adequately aligns with the presumed theoretical account that within-person effects shape between-person differences. Using simulated data, we show that the central parameters of this multilevel structural equation model can be recovered well in most of the investigated scenarios. Our approach has important implications for whether or not to control for mean levels in models with within-person effects as predictors. We illustrate the model using empirical data targeting the question if the within-person association of occurrence of daily stressors (X) with daily experiences of negative affect (M) longitudinally predicts between-person differences in change in depressive symptoms (Y). Implications for other multilevel designs and intervention studies are discussed.
Translational Abstract
In various fields of psychological research, everyday experiences are discussed as underlying between-person differences in phenomena of interest (e.g., personality traits or heterogeneity in developmental change). Intensive longitudinal data provide the means to test the hypothesized association of everyday experiences and between-person differences in outcomes of interest. In the present work, we introduce a two-level structural equation model that can be applied to data in which the daily interplay between two variables measured in an intensive longitudinal design (e.g., experience sampling studies, daily diary studies) is expected to give rise to between-person differences in a third variable. We illustrate this model using simulated data and an empirical example (predicting change in depression from the interplay of daily stressors and daily negative affect).
The within-person encouragement design introduced here combines methodological approaches from three research traditions: (a) the analysis of within-person couplings using multilevel models, (b) the ...experimental manipulation of a treatment variable at the within-person level, and (c) the use of random encouragements as instrumental variables to induce exogenous experimental variation when strict treatment adherence is unrealistic. The proposed combination of these approaches opens up new possibilities to study treatment effects of a broad range of behavioral variables in realistic everyday contexts. We introduce this new research design together with a corresponding data analysis framework: instrumental variable estimation with two-level structural equation models. Using simulations, we show that the approach is applicable with feasible design dimensions regarding numbers of measurement occasions and participants and realistic assumptions about adherence to the encouragement conditions. Possible applications and extensions, as well as potential problems and limitations are discussed.
Salivary cortisol has been the central marker in psychoneuroendocrinological stress research for three decades. Given the technological possibilities to assess data in ecologically valid ...circumstances, many studies have implemented longitudinal assessments of salivary cortisol in study participants’ everyday life. Such studies bear the potential to understand real-life associations of cortisol with psychological traits, states, and health variables. Furthermore, changes in the neuroendocrine regulation and in cortisol reactivity can be used to evaluate the effects of behavioral interventions in real-life circumstances. While standardized paradigms have been developed to measure cortisol in laboratory settings, there is high heterogeneity in the assessment, statistical processing, and interpretation of everyday life cortisol measures. This methodological tutorial aims at summarizing important knowledge which had been accumulated during the past two decades and which could be used to set up an ambulatory assessment study focusing on salivary cortisol in everyday life. Practical advice for possible strategies at all stages of the research process is outlined in detail. Additionally, an example on how to statistically process cortisol data in a multilevel framework (including syntax) is provided. In these analyses, we investigate within- and between-person research questions regarding the association between stress and cortisol in daily life. Thus, the present work (a) can be used as tutorial for setting up everyday life studies focusing on the assessment of salivary cortisol, and (b) can be useful to avoid inconsistencies in study planning, data assessment and data processing in future studies.
•A tutorial for assessing salivary cortisol in everyday life is presented.•Focus on detailed practical advice pertaining to all stages of the research process.•Statistical multilevel modeling of cortisol data is described in detail (including syntax).•Associations between stress and cortisol are described to exemplify the statistical procedures.
This study examined the effects of daily parental autonomy support on changes in child behavior, family environment, and parental well‐being across 3 weeks during the COVID‐19 pandemic in Germany. ...Day‐to‐day associations among autonomy‐supportive parenting, parental need fulfillment, and child well‐being were also assessed. Parents (longitudinal N = 469; Mage = 42.93, SDage = 6.40) of school children (6–19 years) reported on adjustment measures at two measurement occasions and completed up to 21 daily online questionnaires in the weeks between these assessments. Results from dynamic structural equation models suggested reciprocal positive relations among autonomy‐supportive parenting and parental need fulfillment. Daily parental autonomy support, parental need fulfillment, and child well‐being partially predicted change in adjustment measures highlighting the central role of daily parenting for children’s adjustment during the pandemic.
Objective
The aim of the present study is to assess whether people differ in the degree to which their well‐being is affected by fulfillment of the need for competence. Specifically, we want to ...examine (a) whether interindividual differences in the within‐person coupling of competence satisfaction and well‐being (competence satisfaction effect) and of competence dissatisfaction and well‐being (competence dissatisfaction effect) exist, and (b) whether these differences moderate the effects of an experimentally induced frustration of the need for competence.
Method
A daily diary study (N = 89) and a laboratory based experiment (N = 150) were conducted to investigate interindividual differences in need effects. In a third study, participants of an additional daily diary study (N = 129) were subsequently subjected to an experimental frustration of the need for competence.
Results
Including interindividual differences in the within‐person coupling of need fulfillment and well‐being improved model fit significantly, indicating that there were statistically meaningful interindividual differences in need effects. The interaction of competence satisfaction effect and competence dissatisfaction effect moderated the effect of an experimental competence frustration on negative affect.
Conclusion
Results show that interindividual differences in the association of competence fulfillment and well‐being are a matter of degree, but not quality. They also support the claim that need satisfaction and dissatisfaction are more than psychometric opposites.
Daily diary studies and experience sampling studies examine day-to-day variations in affect using different rating types: The former typically collect retrospective affect reports at the end of the ...day, whereas the latter collects multiple momentary assessments across the day. The present study examined the convergence of (aggregated) momentary assessments collected repeatedly within a day and retrospective assessments collected at the end of the day. Building on prior research on the memory-experience gap and the peak-and-end rule we predicted that participants would report more intense retrospective affect than aggregated momentary affect, and that retrospective affect would be biased toward the peak and the most recent affect of the day. Based on socioemotional selectivity theory and the strength and vulnerability integration model, age differences in these convergence indicators were expected. Findings from 2 age-heterogeneous ecological momentary assessment/daily diary hybrid studies (N = 242, 25-65 years; and N = 175, 20-79 years) revealed (a) a memory-experience gap for negative affect (more intense retrospective ratings than aggregated momentary ratings) that is attenuated with advancing age; (b) only a small memory-experience gap for positive affect for very old adults (66-79 years), but not younger adults; (c) relatively high convergence of aggregated momentary ratings and retrospective ratings despite (d) small biases of retrospective negative affect ratings toward peak and most recent negative affect. Findings suggest that both rating types can discriminate "good days" from "bad days" and provide overlapping but not necessarily exchangeable information.
Do lifestyle preferences contribute to the remaining gender gap in higher positions in academia with highly qualified women-especially those with children-deliberately working fewer hours than men ...do? We tested the "mothers work less" hypothesis in two samples of early career researchers employed at universities in Germany (N = 202) and in the US (N = 197). Early career researchers in the US worked on average 6.3 hours more per week than researchers in Germany. In Germany, female early career researchers with children had drastically reduced work hours (around 8 hours per week) compared to male researchers with children and compared to female researchers without children, whereas we found no such effect for U.S. researchers. In addition, we asked how long respondents would ideally want to work (ideal work hours), and results revealed similar effects for ideal work hours. Results support the "mothers work less" hypothesis for German but not for U.S. early career researchers.
Elementary schoolchildren's working memory performance (WMP) fluctuates from moment to moment and day to day, yet the underlying mechanisms are not well understood. In the present study, affective ...states were investigated as predictors of these fluctuations. Interindividual differences in the intraindividual affect-WMP associations were expected, and their structure was explored. One hundred nine children (8-11 years) were investigated in an ambulatory assessment. Affective states (positive affect PA, negative affect NA, activation, deactivation) and WMP were assessed 3 times daily for up to 31 consecutive days. In the whole sample, WMP was lower at occasions with higher NA or deactivation, while there was no overall effect of PA or activation. Results of a mixture model analysis revealed meaningful heterogeneity in these effects: Approximately half of the children showed comparably weaker effects of affect on WMP, while the other three groups showed (1) comparably stronger negative effects of NA and deactivation; (2) a comparably stronger positive effect of activation; or (3) comparably stronger negative effects of NA and deactivation and stronger positive effects of PA and activation. Findings emphasize the importance of explicitly considering interindividual differences in intraindividual associations. They are discussed in the context of current frameworks of interindividual differences in environmental sensitivity.
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