Measuring Experienced Wellbeing: Two Methods for Smartphone-based Ecological Momentary Assessment
Date
Authors
Smith, Conal
Cross, Matt
Duncan, Scott
Grimes, Arthur
Howden-Chapman, Philippa
Le Gros, Lydia
Logan, Amber
MacKay, Lisa
McPhee, Julia
Murphy, Kate
Supervisor
Item type
Journal Article
Degree name
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
International Journal of Wellbeing
Abstract
Since 2010 the widespread availability of smartphones has lowered barriers to collecting experienced wellbeing (EWB) data through ecological momentary assessment (EMA). This paper reports on two New Zealand studies that explore the impact of social context, activity, and the diurnal cycle on the EWB of social housing tenants. The two studies adopt different approaches to implementing EMA via a smartphone. The first uses a smartphone app to collect information on EWB, while the second adopts an instant messaging approach. Despite differences in the EMA approach used and sample characteristics, both studies produce very similar results. Social contact is associated with higher experienced wellbeing, as is travelling when compared to other activities. Both studies also effectively replicate findings from the wider literature on the relationship between the diurnal cycle and experienced happiness. Because the studies both took place in New Zealand in the second half of 2023 and focus on similar target populations, a comparison between them has useful lessons for the impact of the different approaches to EMA on data collection. We find that the instant messaging approach achieved better compliance with the EMA protocol, suggesting that the familiarity of instant messaging may be beneficial for data quality for some respondents. However, the instant messaging approach requires more researcher time per interview and cannot collect GPS information on the respondent’s location, sacrificing a major strength of EMA measures.Description
Keywords
4206 Public Health, 42 Health Sciences, Behavioral and Social Science, Minority Health, Clinical Research, Health Disparities, Health Disparities and Racial or Ethnic Minority Health Research, 3 Good Health and Well Being, 1117 Public Health and Health Services, 1608 Sociology, 1701 Psychology, 4206 Public health, 5203 Clinical and health psychology, 5205 Social and personality psychology
Source
International Journal of Wellbeing, 16(1), pp. 1-27. ISSN: 1179-8602 (Print); 1179-8602 (Online). DOI: 10.5502/ijw.v16i1.4693
Publisher's version
Rights statement
Copyright (c) 2026 Conal Smith, Matthew Cross, Scott Duncan, Arthur Grimes, Philippa Howden-Chapman, Lydia Le Gros, Amber Logan, Lisa MacKay, Julia McPhee, Kate Murphy, Anantha Narayanan, Guy Penny, Nevil Pierse, Tom Stewart. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.