Using Ecological Momentary Assessment to Assess Family Functioning in Spanish-Speaking Parent and Adolescent Dyads: Daily Questionnaire Study
Background: Family functioning is associated with several adolescent health outcomes, and many family-based interventions (FBIs) exist to improve family functioning. However, most FBIs assess family functioning retrospectively at baseline and post-intervention, for example, overlooking the daily fluctuations of family functioning throughout the intervention. Ecological momentary assessment (EMA) is a method involving a high frequency of assessments and has been underutilized to assess family functioning across parent and adolescent dyads. Further, limited research exists on the use of EMA in bilingual populations. Objective: The purpose of this study was to assess an EMA protocol's #feasibility and acceptability and to analyze within-person and between-person variance in family functioning reports in a sample of primarily Spanish speaking parent and adolescent dyads. Methods: We recruited 7 parents (100% female; Mage = 37.3 years) and 8 adolescents (87.5% female; Mage = 11.9) who identified as Hispanic/Latinx. Participants completed a baseline assessment (including demographics and family functioning assessment), a 7-day protocol with a once-daily family assessment questionnaire using an EMA app, and an acceptability questionnaire at the conclusion of the study. Results: Results indicated overall satisfaction with the EMA protocol. The daily assessments were completed relatively quickly (M = 3 minutes and 16 seconds) after the prompt notification was received and the response rate across daily assessments was 89.7%. Reported family functioning was relatively high across both adolescents (M = 4.57) and parents (M = 4.59). The variance across adolescents (SD = .459) was larger than within individual reported family functioning (SD = .122). Alternatively, the variance across parents was smaller (SD = .132) compared to reported family functioning among parents’ individual reports (SD = .286). Findings highlight the heterogeneity between adolescent and parent responses. Finally, the visual inspection of data underscored individualized patterns and reported differences in family functioning reports across parents and adolescents. Conclusions: The findings emphasize the value of EMA in studying family (e.g., adolescent-caregiver) behaviors. The method's ability to capture immediate experiences presents a nuanced picture of daily interactions and offers suggestions for practice when using EMA methodology in populations such as the one included in this study (i.e., primarily Spanish-speaking parent-adolescent dyads).
