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BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT article

Front. Psychol.
Sec. Health Psychology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1438422

Real-world Stress and Control: Integrating Ambulatory Physiological and Ecological Momentary Assessment Technologies to Explain Daily Wellbeing

Provisionally accepted
Monika Lohani Monika Lohani 1*Samuel Dutton Samuel Dutton 1Zac E Imel Zac E Imel 1Patrick L. Hill Patrick L. Hill 2
  • 1 The University of Utah, Salt Lake City, United States
  • 2 Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri, United States

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    The current study sought to advance our understanding of the connections between stress, perceived control, affect, and physiology in daily life. To achieve this goal, we integrated hourly ambulatory physiological and experiential data from young adult participants who experienced work or academic stressors over the course of a day. Participants wore a cardiovascular monitor that recorded heart rate data continuously for 8 hours while hourly random Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA) data were collected in personally relevant settings via mobile phones to learn about stress, perceived control, and affect. The current findings provide a critical advance by demonstrating clear evidence for moderation by perceived control, wherein affective wellbeing was strongly associated with heart rate when one experienced a stressor outside their control. The innovative approach utilized in the current study in real-world settings provides further support for the value of integrating individuals' self-report and physiological experiences (e.g., the role of perceived control), as the information gained can provide critical insights into stress physiology (e.g., heart rate) and wellbeing (e.g., negative affect) connections. The present study thus provides a critical advance to the literature by connecting the literature on daily affect, perceived control, and physiological data streams. This innovation is particularly noteworthy given the general paucity of work that employs ambulatory assessments of physiological responses to daily life.

    Keywords: stress, Perceived control, wellbeing, real-world assessment, Ecological Momentary Assessment, Ambulatory psychophysiology

    Received: 27 May 2024; Accepted: 13 Jan 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 Lohani, Dutton, Imel and Hill. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Monika Lohani, The University of Utah, Salt Lake City, United States

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.