Researching adolescents’ digital technology usage with a smartphone-based ecological momentary assessment (EMA)

LEBEDÍKOVÁ, Michaela, Michal TKACZYK, Jana BLAHOŠOVÁ, Steriani ELAVSKY and David ŠMAHEL. Researching adolescents’ digital technology usage with a smartphone-based ecological momentary assessment (EMA). In Methods in practice : Studying children and youth online. Hamburg: Leibniz Institute for Media Research, 2022, p. 8-11. Available from: https://dx.doi.org/10.21241/ssoar.83031.

Basic information

• Original name: Researching adolescents’ digital technology usage with a smartphone-based ecological momentary assessment (EMA)
• Authors: LEBEDÍKOVÁ, Michaela, Michal TKACZYK, Jana BLAHOŠOVÁ, Steriani ELAVSKY and David ŠMAHEL.
• Edition: Hamburg, Methods in practice : Studying children and youth online, p. 8-11, 4 pp. 2022.
• Publisher: Leibniz Institute for Media Research

Other information

• Original language: English
• Type of outcome: Popularizing texts and activities
• Field of Study: 50802 Media and socio-cultural communication
• Country of publisher: Germany
• Confidentiality degree: is not subject to a state or trade secret
• WWW: URL
• Organization unit: Faculty of Social Studies
• Doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.21241/ssoar.83031
• Keywords in English: ecological momentary assessment; adolescents; smartphone use; smartphone data collection
• Tags: International impact, Reviewed

Abstract

Adolescents spend increasing time using their smartphones but the current understanding of how they use them is limited and relies on self-reported surveys - therefore we need methods that would capture more precisely how adolescents use their smartphones and how it impacts them. One promising way is to combine ecological momentary assessment, which involves intensive repeated measurement with automated data collection from adolescents’ own phones using a custom-built research app. EMA involves intensive repeated data sampling (i.e., several times a day), allowing for the examination of both within- and between-person variability with both reduced retrospective recall and self-report bias. Our contribution to the book discusses in detail how we developed a research app that our participants installed in their own smartphones, and how we tackled the ethical and technological obstacles. Our experience suggests that the ecological momentary assessment method can be successfully applied by combining self-reported data with objective data from mobile phones. This means that we can better understand adolescents’ smartphone behavior and the complex dynamics of effects at both the within- and between-person levels. That is. we can explore differences between individuals, but also differences in one persons’ usage over time. For researchers interested in utilizing similar research design, we add recommendations and lessons learned.

Links

• GX19-27828X, research and development project: Name: Pohled do budoucnosti: Porozumění vlivu technologií na “well-being” adolescentů (Acronym: FUTURE)

Investor: Czech Science Foundation