Experiencing Sampling Research from Its Beginnings into the Future

Abstract

Early experience sampling research sought to map the ecology of adolescents’ lives. Its contributions include discovery of similar patterns in psychological states across diverse samples: positive emotions with friends, more negative states alone, high challenge but low motivation during schoolwork, and wider variability in teens’ than adults’ emotions, including more frequent extreme positive states. Recent ambulatory assessment research has expanded this mission and methods in valuable ways. Yet it still demands problem‐solving (e.g., engaging participants, formulating analyses that represent teens’ complex lives). A promising innovation is use of micro‐longitudinal analyses to examine sequential processes (e.g., linkages between stress–coping–emotions; relationship episodes). Qualitative data can add “zones” for development of empirically‐based theory about daily processes, such as adolescents’ meaning‐making and learning self‐regulation.

Parent-adolescent interaction quality and adolescent affect - an experience sampling study on effect heterogeneity

“…That is, we measured fluctuations in parentadolescent interactions quality across the day with the experience sampling method (ESM, also called "ecological momentary assessment", EMA). In ESM, participants answer multiple questionnaires per day on their smartphone (Bolger et al, 2003;Larson, 2019;Repetti et al, 2015). The questionnaires can capture information about real-life situations or dynamic states such as the current mood or the experienced quality of parent-adolescent interactions.…”

“…Despite their feasible and increasingly popular method in adolescent samples (Larson, 1989(Larson, , 2019Van Roekel et al, 2019), only a handful of studies have employed ESM to assess how parent-adolescent interactions are intertwined with adolescent's well-being in daily life.…”

The Practicalities and Perils of Ambulatory Assessment's Promise: Introduction to a Special Section

“…More broadly, “open science” practices, including sharing of program code, survey items, and original study designs and variants from data reported, can inform the field as we seek to replicate and build on trailblazing adolescent AA scholarship. This point is essential so that less‐seasoned scholars seeking to implement adolescent AA can build and broaden, rather than trip over, problems that are regularly encountered in AA studies (Duvenage et al., ; George et al., ; Larson, ; Odgers, ).…”

“…Arguably the scholar best‐suited to speak to how far adolescent AA scholarship has (or hasn't) travelled, Larson () articulates with seasoned realism the advantages and challenges associated with AA based on decades of work. Among adolescent researchers, Larson and Csikszentmihalyi (e.g., Larson, Csikszentmihalyi, & Graef, ) catalyzed experience sampling methods (ESM) and lay the foundation for modern adolescent AA.…”

Measuring parent-adolescent interactions in natural habitats. The potential, status, and challenges of Ecological Momentary Assessment.

“…To monitor families as go through their daily lives, Ecological Momentary Assessment [EMA, aka Experience Sampling Method -ESM, or Ambulatory Assessment], asks participants to answer very brief questionnaires several (random) times per day. These may include what they are doing, how they are feeling, and with whom and how they are interacting [4]. Parent-child interactions, as such, are measured in the naturalistic context in which they occur, at the moment when they occur (Figure 1).…”