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Category: Project

Description: Researchers use ecological momentary assessment (EMA) to study a range of behaviors related to psychopathology. However, it is unclear whether brief measures of coping behaviors accurately capture the intended responses. In this secondary analysis of a single-case experimental design, eight individuals with BPD (Mage = 21.57, 63% female, 63% Asian American) completed daily diary entries for 12 weeks, along with hourly EMA entries on two days. Participants provided qualitative descriptions of their behaviors and classified them into one of five functional categories. Independent raters also classified each qualitative description into the same categories. Overall agreement between patients and raters was low, Krippendorff’s α = .47, 95% CI [.43, .52]. The type of emotion experienced, rater confidence, and word count of responses affected agreement. Generating items that capture the breadth of possible behaviors, are brief enough for frequent administration, and are consistently understood by participants is an important continued challenge.