Tracking Infant Development With a Smartphone: A Practical Guide to the Experience Sampling Method

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced developmental researchers to rethink their traditional research practices. The growing need to study infant development at a distance has shifted our research paradigm to online and digital monitoring of infants and families, using electronic devices, such as smartphones. In this practical guide, we introduce the Experience Sampling Method (ESM) – a research method to collect data, in the moment, on multiple occasions over time – for examining infant development at a distance. ESM is highly suited for assessing dynamic processes of infant development and family dynamics, such as parent-infant interactions and parenting practices. It can also be used to track highly fluctuating family dynamics (e.g., infant and parental mood or behavior) and routines (e.g., activity levels and feeding practices). The aim of the current paper was to provide an overview by explaining what ESM is and for what types of research ESM is best suited. Next, we provide a brief step-by-step guide on how to start and run an ESM study, including preregistration, development of a questionnaire, using wearables and other hardware, planning and design considerations, and examples of possible analysis techniques. Finally, we discuss common pitfalls of ESM research and how to avoid them.

Does parental smartphone use predict parents’ perceptions of family life? An examination of momentary associations between parental smartphone use, parental experiences of quality time, and parental perceptions of difficult child behavior

“…It can be asked whether the use of the ESM application does not provoke technoference during the research period. This raises an important ethical question about our intensive multimethod study design that has recently also been raised by other researchers who used ESM to track parenting behaviors and child development (van den Heuvel et al, 2021).…”

Instruments for Measuring Youth Digital Media Use

“…One of the key advantages of MES over diary studies or other retrospective methods is that the in situ nature of MES allows media usage to be measured in its situational context, thus maintaining the high ecological validity of the method ( van Berkel, Ferreira, and Kostakos 2018). With media use becoming more digitized and temporarily blurred, MES increases the chance of capturing short-lived and transient media activities (i.e., checking WhatsApp, unlocking the home screen, scrolling through Instagram) (van den Heuvel et al 2021) and significantly reduces recall bias (Roekel, Keijsers, and Chung 2019), participant burden, and administrative costs for respondents and researchers (Chatzitheochari et al 2018;Rich, Bickham, and Shrier 2015).…”

From Burden to Enjoyment: A User-Centered Approach to Engage Adolescents in Intensive Longitudinal Research

“…Designing sampling schemes that balance burden and statistical power is one challenge, as is analyzing irregularly spaced time-series data. Recent tutorials offer guidance for optimizing designs and analyzing data with advanced statistics (Bolger & Laurenceau, 2013;Horstmann, 2020;Myin-Germeys & Kuppens, 2022;van den Heuvel et al, 2021;Van Roekel et al, 2019). Another well-known challenge is sustaining engagement from youth over weeks or even months to provide frequent reports on their experiences, which remains one of the most difficult ones to address.…”