The Experience Sampling Method in Monitoring Social Interactions Among Children and Adolescents in School: A Systematic Literature Review

Abstract

BackgroundThe experience sampling method (ESM) is an increasingly popular data collection method to assess interpersonal dynamics in everyday life and emotions contextualized in real-world settings. As primary advantages of ESM sampling strategies include minimization of memory biases, maximization of ecological validity, and hypothesis testing at the between- and within-person levels, ESM is suggested to be appropriate for studying the daily lives of educational actors. However, ESM appears to be underutilized in education research. We, thus, aimed to systematically evaluate the methodological characteristics and quality of published ESM studies of social interactions among children and adolescents in school settings, as well as to explore how much variance in social interaction variables could be attributed to the within-person level.MethodUsing Academic Search Complete, APA PsycINFO, APA PsycArticles, ProQuest, Web of Science, Wiley Online Library, and SAGE Journals, and in accordance with PRISMA guidelines and pre-defined eligibility criteria, we conducted a systematic literature search of experience sampling studies up to November 2020. To assess methodological quality, we used a modified checklist for reporting of ESM studies.ResultsOf the originally 2 413 identified studies, a final 52 experience sampling studies were included in the present review. Findings on sample and study design characteristics generally revealed wide variability. Even if high-quality studies were associated with higher scores on the training of participants in using the ESM procedure, and use of incentives, these design strategies did not reveal a statistically significant impact on compliance. The intraclass correlation coefficient was reported in nine studies and on average 58% of the variance in social interaction variables could be attributed to within-person fluctuation between timepoints.ConclusionThe current study is the first to systematically review ESM-based studies on social interactions among children and adolescents in the school context. These observations suggest that ESM is a potentially favorable technique for extracting complex social phenomena in real-world settings. We hope that this review will contribute to improving the quality assessment of ESM studies as well as to inform and guide future experience sampling studies, particularly regarding social phenomena with children and adolescents in educational settings.

Are you alone? Measuring solitude in childhood, adolescence, and emerging adulthood

“…In ESM studies, researchers typically ask participants to indicate whether they are alone or with others at random times over the course of a day ( 43 , 46 ). Factors including number of daily assessments, types of items (e.g., single-item scales vs. multi-item scales), day of the week (i.e., weekday vs. weekend), and lag time between signal and response may all play a role ( 55 ).…”

Associations between interpersonal contexts, positive emotions, and related experiences in school students: A systematic review of experience sampling studies.

“…In Part I of our systematic literature review, the content of 52 experience sampling studies was included, with data on positive and negative subjective experiences as well as social contexts. For more details on the search terms, see Part I of the study (Mölsä et al, 2022; a full list of the search terms is also provided in the online Supplemental Materials). Based on a narrative synthesis approach, the present study seeks to summarize findings regarding the link between positive emotionality and social context as experienced by children and adolescents within and in connection to educational settings.…”

“…However, we did not include studies on negative interactions such as aggressive behavior or bullying, as these were beyond the scope of our aim. For positive emotionality, we included various positive emotional experience variables that were identified in the prequel of this study (Mölsä et al, 2022), and that were associated with at least one of the social contexts of interest, with items such as "happiness", and "positive affect", whereas negative emotional experiences such as loneliness or sadness were not included.…”

“…Consequently, a total of 14 out of 52 experience sampling studies were deemed eligible for inclusion in this review. Building on the study identification and search process in the companion article (Mölsä et al, 2022), Figure 1 shows the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (Moher et al, 2009) flowchart for data inclusion/exclusion at each stage of the literature search procedure in the present review study.…”

“…A systematic literature search was conducted for experience sampling studies between 1996 and 2020. Details of the literature search process and results were reported in the companion (Part I) of the study (Mölsä et al, 2022; Frontiers in Psychology 2022; 13: 844698). Using a narrative synthesis, the associations of interpersonal contexts and positive emotionality in school students were analyzed.…”