Feasibility and Validity of Geographically Explicit Ecological Momentary Assessment With Recall-Aided Space-Time...

We employ data from the Adolescent Health and Development in Context Study-a representative sample of urban youth ages 11-17 in and around the Columbus, OH area-to investigate the feasibility and validity of smartphone-based geographically explicit ecological momentary assessment (GEMA). Age, race, household income, familiarity with smartphones, and self-control were associated with missing global positioning systems (GPS) coverage, whereas school day was associated with discordance between percent of time at home based on GPS-only versus recall-aided space-time budget data. Fatigue from protocol compliance increases missing GPS across the week, which results in more discordance. Although some systematic differences were observed, these findings offer evidence that smartphone-based GEMA is a viable method for the collection of activity space data on urban youth.