Capturing Parental Wellbeing in Everyday Life Through a Mobile Diary App
For patients and families
In plain language
An automatic summary of structured registry data. It is an orientation aid, not a substitute for the official protocol or a physician assessment.
- What is being studied
- This is an observational study: the protocol does not assign a study treatment.
- Who it may be relevant to
- Registry conditions: Wellbeing, Sleep, Support, Family. Basic parameters: No limits · All.
- What needs checking
- Age, condition and sex are only basic indicators. Prior treatment, laboratory values and other mandatory requirements appear in the eligibility criteria below.
- Where it takes place
- Switzerland
- Next step
- Save the trial, show it to the treating physician, and confirm current recruitment with the study center. Costs, documents and travel →
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Official title
Parental Wellbeing in Everyday Life: Ecological Momentary Assessment Study on the Wellbeing of Parents of Children Aged 0 - 12 in Switzerland
Overview
This observational study investigates the wellbeing of parents in German-speaking Switzerland in everyday contexts using smartphone-based Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA). Family caregiving can be both rewarding and burdensome, yet little is known about how parental wellbeing fluctuates in daily life and across caregiving situations. The study aims to examine momentary subjective wellbeing, caregiving activities, and contextual factors in natural settings. Participants complete repeated real-time assessments via a digital diary application five times a day over a 14-day study period. The study seeks to characterize within-person variability in parental wellbeing and identify contextual factors associated with positive and negative daily experiences.
Detailed description
Family caregiving is essential for individual and societal wellbeing but is often associated with ambivalent experiences, including both reward and overload. However, parental wellbeing has rarely been examined using intensive longitudinal, real-time methodologies.
This observational study uses Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA) to capture parents' subjective wellbeing in their natural environments. Participants complete five smartphone-based assessments per day over the 14-day study period. Measures include momentary wellbeing, emotions, (caregiving) activities, as well as rewarding and challenging situations.
The EMA approach minimizes retrospective bias and enables the investigation of within-person fluctuations and context-dependent variations in wellbeing. The study aims to identify patterns of daily parental wellbeing and examine associations between caregiving contexts and subjective experiences. Findings are expected to contribute to a more nuanced understanding of parental wellbeing in everyday life and inform future support approaches.
Primary outcome measures
- Momentary Parental Subjective Wellbeing [Time frame: Repeated assessments three times per day during the 14-day EMA monitoring period.]
Secondary outcome measures (9)
- Sleep satisfaction [Time frame: Assessed each morning during the 14-day EMA monitoring period]
- Number of sleep interruptions [Time frame: Assessed each morning during the 14-day EMA monitoring period]
- End-of-day global satisfaction [Time frame: Assessed each evening during the 14-day EMA monitoring period]
- Daily caregiving load and time allocation [Time frame: Assessed each evening during the 14-day EMA monitoring period]
- Perceived support in childcare [Time frame: Assessed each evening during the 14-day EMA monitoring period]
- Available parenting resources [Time frame: Assessed each evening during the 14-day EMA monitoring period]
- Parental conflicts [Time frame: Assessed each evening during the 14-day EMA monitoring period]
- Child behavior [Time frame: Assessed each evening during the 14-day EMA monitoring period]
- Rewarding and challenging situations for parents [Time frame: Assessed each evening during the 14-day EMA monitoring period]
Eligibility criteria
Inclusion criteria
Parents living in Switzerland
- with at least one child aged between 0 months - 11 years and 11 months
- German-speaking
- any form of parenting
- any relationship status
- any form of couples or other forms of cohabitation
- No restrictions regarding nationality, wealth, external childcare, employment (full-time, part-time or homemaker) or similar characteristics.
Participants must have a smartphone with internet access to participate in the mobile diary study
Exclusion criteria
- All Children > 11 years and 11 months of age
- Not German speaking
- Swiss nationality but living abroad
- No smartphone with internet access
Criteria are shown verbatim from the registry (in English). Final eligibility is always assessed by the study center.
Healthy volunteers: No
Study design
- Observational model
- Cohort
Study locations
Switzerland · 1 center
- Eastern Switzerland University of Applied Sciences — Sankt Gallen
Identifiers
NCT: NCT07476833 · 220608-1 · 220608