An Ecological Momentary Assessment of Academic Engagement: Proof of Concept for Application to Participation Research

Abstract

Community participation is an important area of rehabilitation research. However, accurately capturing individual experiences with participation is difficult using conventional survey approaches. Biases in self-report and lack of contextual information are leading threats to understanding participation and how individual circumstances influence outcomes. Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA) addresses weaknesses in conventional data-collection approaches that could enhance participation research but presents the potential for high participant burden and low compliance that threaten data quality. The purpose of this paper is to present findings from a proof-of-concept EMA study focused on academic engagement as a form of community participation in sample of college students enriched for disability. The students were enrolled in a Mid-Atlantic U.S. university. We report initial feasibility and validation results comparing momentary data with conventional measures of academic engagement. Finally, we discuss potential application of this method in participation outcome research and rehabilitation practice.