Validation of a transdiagnostic psychopathology EMA protocol in a university students sample

Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA) collects real-time data in daily life, enhancing ecological validity and reducing recall bias. An EMA questionnaire that measures symptoms and transdiagnostic factors was recently developed with network modeling purposes. This study examines this EMA protocol’s (1) subjective experience (e.g., burden, item clarity, survey frequency adequacy, etc), (2) compliance, dropout, and predictors thereof, (3) the variability of EMA items across and within participants, and (4) the relations between EMA items and baseline standardized psychopathology questionnaires. University students (n = 262 Mage = 21.9, 84.8% females, 17.2% Dutch) completed eight daily momentary surveys (with the first including morning survey), an evening survey, and a weekly survey during a 4-week EMA protocol. Additionally, a concluding survey examined participants' subjective experiences. Perceived burden was 3.40 on a 7-point scale, and people with higher levels of psychopathology found it more burdensome and more difficult to complete. 67% of the surveys were completed and 16% of the participants dropped out. Baseline psychopathology was not significantly associated with dropout or compliance. Moreover, surveys triggered in later study days, during the weekend, longer surveys, and surveys with lower financial reward were more likely to be missed. Between-subjects and within-subjects variability and correlations with baseline psychopathology varied across EMA items, with most EMA-items showing sufficient within-individual variability for network modeling purposes and showing correlations across all types of psychopathology and transdiagnostic factors. The results suggest that the collection of intensive time-series data is feasible, and data quality and characteristics match requirements of different network models.