Testing the feasibility of passive sensing among adolescents: Implications for mental health.

Abstract

Passive sensing technology shows promise in capturing elements of adolescent mental health. Research testing if there is a signal between adolescents' self-reports of same-day mental health indicators and passively sensed variables can be inconsistent, particularly with metrics pertaining to digital behaviors. Moreover, little is known if adolescent participation in passive sensing research is biased with respect to demographics and general metrics of mental health. The current research tested these aims among adolescents recruited from a large and diverse sample participating in an ongoing longitudinal study. Adolescents (aged 15-20, N = 131) participated in a 90-day passive sensing study, which collected data on both digital (keystroke and app usage) and offline (sleep and physical activity) behaviors. Although correlations indicated a small signal between same-day mental health indicators and several passively sensed variables (e.g., proportion of typed negative words and call behaviors), associations typically disappeared when disaggregating between- from within-person associations. Additionally, participation uptake was low, but there was little evidence of bias in participation or data coverage based on mental health risk or demographics. Results demonstrate the feasibility of collecting passive sensing data with a diverse sample of adolescents, but barriers remain on adolescent willingness to engage in this research and the strength of signal between passively sensed variables and self-report constructs. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).