Beyond Snapshots: A Systematic Review of Parent-Adolescent Ecological Momentary Assessment Studies Across Diverse and General Populations

The last decade has seen a surge in studies using Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA), where participants complete brief daily questionnaires to capture real-time experiences. While widely used to study adolescents' social-emotional processes, parent-adolescent EMA remains underutilized, particularly within diverse families. This gap is surprising given the proven value of dyadic EMA in studying adult relationships and its potential to elucidate contextualized family dynamics. This systematic review synthesized and critically evaluated existing EMA research on parent-adolescent dyads and triads (i.e., an adolescent and both parents) published between 2014 and 2024, focusing on which populations have been systematically excluded. Following a systematic search of electronic databases (e.g., PubMed), we identified 85 publications originating from 44 distinct datasets that conducted EMA on parent-adolescent dyads or triads. Substantial variability was observed across studies in the number of daily assessments, EMA days, and data-waves collected. Utilization of the multilevel and dyadic features of the data also varied: most papers fully utilized the temporal aspect (e.g., examining within-family processes), while the dyadic/triadic aspect was only partially utilized (e.g., most studies examined unidirectional effects, typically parent-to-child). Regarding populations studied, while most focused on White, non-Hispanic, highly educated samples, some targeted only minority groups (e.g., Chinese-American). However, whether within-family processes differ between populations was rarely examined. Across dyadic (vs. triadic) studies, fathers were underrepresented, and gender identity and sexual orientation were almost never assessed, likely masking the exclusion of gender and sexual minorities. Parent-adolescent dyadic and triadic EMA appears feasible and could provide unique insights into family dynamics in typical and diverse populations. Gaps in the literature and suggestions for advancing inclusion and diversity are discussed.