Why Digital Tools Have Not Yet Revolutionized Adolescent Health Research and What We Can Do

Abstract

The promise of digital tools and devices for spurring new discoveries in adolescent health research is enticing. This special section draws attention to many of the advantages that mobile and wearable devices offer for ambulatory assessment research, which have now been realized. Despite such progress, digital tools have not yet delivered on their predicted revolution of adolescent health research. I offer four reasons for why digital devices have fallen short of this predicted promise. For each barrier, I suggest parallel strategies for ensuring adolescent research benefits from Ambulatory Assessment advances. To avoid missing out on opportunities to support young people, adolescence scholarship must develop in time with innovations in digital devices and platforms and move past what has, to date, been an overwhelming focus on fears about their usage.

Annual Research Review: Ecological momentary assessment studies in child psychology and psychiatry

“…These include direct methods (e.g., clearly stated financial contingencies and bonus payments) and more indirect methods – for example, recent work suggests that gamification , defined as ‘the use of game design elements in non‐game contexts’ (Deterding, Dixon, Khaled, & Nacke, ), is associated with increased quantity and quality of data collected in EMA protocols with adults (Van Berkel, Goncalves, Hosio, & Kostakos, ). As the percentage of adolescents with a smartphone increases (Anderson & Jiang, ), EMA protocols will need to adapt to capture youths' attention (Modecki, Goldberg, Ehrenreich, Russell, & Bellmore, ; Odgers, ).…”

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

“…For instance, missing data within these populations can be vexing, perhaps because youth can be “too busy” engaging in real‐life behaviors, such as risk activity, to adhere to study protocols (e.g., Duvenage et al., ; Odgers, ), or because youth wish to preempt “shoulder surfing” when responding to sensitive questions (Dockray, O'Neill, & Jump, ). Additionally, authors caution against methods which adolescents may find especially awkward, such as wearing a digital device like a Jawbone (George et al., ) in certain social settings, or procedures which may be embarrassing (e.g., reluctance to spit into a see‐through vial; Dockray et al., ).…”

“…All told, sharing knowledge gained, whether from piloting or large‐scale studies, is a fundamental step to enhancing future adolescent AA scholarship (Modecki & Mazza, ; Odgers, ). Indeed, the studies in this special section underscore the critical importance of enhanced knowledge dissemination.…”

“…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, ).…”

“…Bringing it all together, Odgers () shares her outlook for the future of adolescent AA and provides guideposts for prospective scholarship. Recounting her journey from relative nativity to seasoned expert in wearable and digital tools, Odgers shares her hard‐won observations of the unanticipated outgrowths of the digital revolution, including researcher's increased competition for adolescents’ attention given the nature of “screen time” in all its forms, and the fact that parental consent is no more readily attainable via online methods than off.…”