Parent-Adolescent Interactions in Daily Life Using the Experience Sampling Method

• In Event: Studying the Dynamics of Parenting Adolescents on a Momentary Timescale

Abstract

The Experience Sampling Method (ESM) is an increasing popular method in Psychology (Hamaker & Wichers, 2017), in which micro-surveys are frequently released to participants to capture moment-to-moment thoughts, feelings, and/or behaviors. Applied to the study of adolescent-parent relationship, this method can lead to more ecologically valid and more family-specific insights in parenting processes in daily life (e.g., Molenaar et al., 2009; Boele et al. 2019). However, still little is known about how to conduct an ESM study to investigate parent-adolescent interactions (but see Reynolds, Robles & Repetti, 2015). Therefore we have examined 1) study design criteria to increase compliance rates and data-quality, 2) the development of a novel instrument for assessing quality of momentary parent-adolescent interactions. Adolescents (N = 99, Mage = 15.81, SDage = 1.72, Range age = 12 – 18, 56% female; 96% Dutch) received five to six questionnaires a day for 14 days (t = 74 per person). With regard to compliance, participants completed 5891 surveys, resulting in an overall compliance rate of 69%. Compliance was not correlated with age or gender. In 3483 cases (59% of all completed surveys) adolescents reported to have interacted with their parents in the last hour. Older adolescents, on average, reported on fewer parent-adolescent interactions than younger adolescents (r = -.29, p = .005), but boys and girls did not differ in this respect. With regard to the sampling scheme, in the early morning (7:00-7:30 AM) participants more often missed surveys or reported that they have not interacted with their parentd. Most parent-adolescent interactions were reported during 5:30 - 6:10 PM. Secondly, we examined the structure of a novel scale to assess momentary interaction quality. Experience Sampling scales measuring parental warmth (ωwithin = .85; ωbetween = .97), parent-adolescent conflict (ωwithin = .87; ωbetween = .95), parental autonomy support (ωwithin = .81; ωbetween = .94) and psychological control (ωwithin = .82; ωbetween = .94) showed very good within and between-family reliability. In sum, these findings demonstrate the feasibility of ESM studies on parent-child interactions in adolescence. To increase compliance and reduce burden on participants, findings suggest to adapt the sampling scheme to the characteristics and daily routines of the adolescents.

Authors

• Anne Bülow, Erasmus University Rotterdam
  Presenting Author

• Manon Enting, Tilburg University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Jolene Van der Kaap-Deeder, Norwegian University of Science and Technology
  Non-Presenting Author

• Savannah Boele, Erasmus University Rotterdam
  Non-Presenting Author

• Eeske Van Roekel, Tilburg University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Jaap Denissen, Utrecht University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Loes Keijsers, Erasmus University Rotterdam
  Non-Presenting Author