Practical problems and positive experiences with ecological momentary assessment: reflections from people who use drugs

Markowski, Kelly L.; Smith, Jeffrey A.; Gauthier, G. Robin; Harcey, Sela R.

doi:10.1080/00952990.2021.1910700

Cited by 8 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…Researchers should take care to inspect patterns of attrition and compliance, and use information collected in the baseline questionnaire to evaluate how drop-outs differ from those who completed the surveys. Pilot studies paired with qualitative feedback can help researchers understand why participants dropped out (Dejonckheere and Erbas, 2021), as well as what aspects participants found positive or engaging about the study (Markowski et al, 2021). Nevertheless, the proportion of compliers in the current study (63.64%) was higher than the fear of crime study (13.6% for daily assessment), as well as the Del Toro studies (i.e.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Measuring everyday experiences with the police in the Netherlands: An experience sampling pilot study

Nivette,

Op de Weegh,

Nägel

2023

Methodological Innovations

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Survey research typically measures contact and experiences with police cross-sectionally and retrospectively. These retrospective measures may suffer from recall biases and are relatively limited in capturing the variety of experiences that may occur in daily life. The current study explores the feasibility and application of experience sampling techniques to measure day-to-day experiences with the police and variation in attitudes towards the police. Data for the study were collected over a period of 21 days from a convenience sample of 206 young people (aged 18–30 years) living in the Netherlands. After completing a baseline questionnaire, participants completed daily questionnaires measuring attitudes towards the police and any experiences with the police or other authorities that have occurred. A total of 3042 daily questionnaires were completed out of a possible 4389 (69% response rate). An analysis of participation and attrition suggests that individuals with more positive views of the police are more likely to complete most or all of the daily surveys. The descriptive results show that the number and type of experiences can vary substantially across individuals and time and that overall experiences with the police are prevalent in everyday life. The most prevalent reported experiences were observing the police ‘on the job’ and through the media. In addition, while attitudes towards the police were largely stable across the study period, there was still a non-negligible amount of variation over time. These pilot results raise questions about how we measure experiences with the police, and what role different experiences have in shaping individual attitudes. Experience sampling techniques may help to capture these other forms of exposure and understand how these experiences might influence attitudes towards police.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Measuring everyday experiences with the police in the Netherlands: An experience sampling pilot study

Nivette,

Op de Weegh,

Nägel

2023

Methodological Innovations

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“…Second, the extent to which participants turned off phones because of concerns about GPS tracking is unclear [ 22 , 23 ]. Although this topic did not emerge in the exit interviews with participants [ 21 ], it was also not a specific point of emphasis in the interview protocols. Future research should ask participants more targeted questions about motivations and instances of the phone deliberately being turned off so that additional actions can be taken to preempt this kind of noncompliance.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Finally, participants attended an outtake appointment where they returned the study equipment and completed a second electronic survey plus a semistructured exit interview. The interview broadly asked about the participants’ experiences in the study [ 21 ].…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…On Sunday, only one question was asked at 4 PM about how frequently the participant desired to use drugs over the past week. As the same EMAs were asked each day at the same time, many participants came to expect them and incorporated them into their routine [ 21 ]. Each EMA took less than a minute to complete, meaning that participants spent less than 2 hours answering questions each week.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…On the other hand, missingness might primarily originate from battery dying or the device frequently being switched off. Here, participants may have experienced chronic issues with access to reliable charging, perhaps because of experiencing current homelessness [ 21 ]. Alternatively, participants may have been worried about confidentiality and data security related to GPS tracking, turning off their devices at or near certain locations [ 22 , 23 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Patterns of Missing Data With Ecological Momentary Assessment Among People Who Use Drugs: Feasibility Study Using Pilot Study Data

Markowski¹,

Smith²,

Gauthier³

et al. 2021

JMIR Form Res

Self Cite

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Background Ecological momentary assessment (EMA) is a set of research methods that capture events, feelings, and behaviors as they unfold in their real-world setting. Capturing data in the moment reduces important sources of measurement error but also generates challenges for noncompliance (ie, missing data). To date, EMA research has only examined the overall rates of noncompliance. Objective In this study, we identify four types of noncompliance among people who use drugs and aim to examine the factors associated with the most common types. Methods Data were obtained from a recent pilot study of 28 Nebraskan people who use drugs who answered EMA questions for 2 weeks. We examined questions that were not answered because they were skipped, they expired, the phone was switched off, or the phone died after receiving them. Results We found that the phone being switched off and questions expiring comprised 93.34% (1739/1863 missing question-instances) of our missing data. Generalized structural equation model results show that participant-level factors, including age (relative risk ratio [RRR]=0.93; P=.005), gender (RRR=0.08; P=.006), homelessness (RRR=3.80; P=.04), personal device ownership (RRR=0.14; P=.008), and network size (RRR=0.57; P=.001), are important for predicting off missingness, whereas only question-level factors, including time of day (ie, morning compared with afternoon, RRR=0.55; P<.001) and day of week (ie, Tuesday-Saturday compared with Sunday, RRR=0.70, P=.02; RRR=0.64, P=.005; RRR=0.58, P=.001; RRR=0.55, P<.001; and RRR=0.66, P=.008, respectively) are important for predicting expired missingness. The week of study is important for both (ie, week 2 compared with week 1, RRR=1.21, P=.03, for off missingness and RRR=1.98, P<.001, for expired missingness). Conclusions We suggest a three-pronged strategy to preempt missing EMA data with high-risk populations: first, provide additional resources for participants likely to experience phone charging problems (eg, people experiencing homelessness); second, ask questions when participants are not likely to experience competing demands (eg, morning); and third, incentivize continued compliance as the study progresses. Attending to these issues can help researchers ensure maximal data quality.

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Ecological security assessment of urban park landscape using the DPSIR model and EW-PCA method

Xu,

Wang,

Zhang

et al. 2024

Environ Dev Sustain

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Practical problems and positive experiences with ecological momentary assessment: reflections from people who use drugs

Cited by 8 publications

References 23 publications

Measuring everyday experiences with the police in the Netherlands: An experience sampling pilot study

Measuring everyday experiences with the police in the Netherlands: An experience sampling pilot study

Patterns of Missing Data With Ecological Momentary Assessment Among People Who Use Drugs: Feasibility Study Using Pilot Study Data

Ecological security assessment of urban park landscape using the DPSIR model and EW-PCA method

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