Using daily diaries to study family settings, emotions, and health in everyday life

Abstract

Despite well documented links between family functioning and long-term physical health problems, prior studies using cross-sectional, laboratory, or traditional longitudinal designs are limited in their ability to address everyday family encounters, emotions, biological processes, and physical health. Here, we describe our ongoing study of family settings and upper respiratory infections (URIs) to demonstrate the value of daily diary approaches. Families completed a daily diary assessing social interactions within and outside the family, daily mood, health behaviors, and URIs every day for two months. We collected objective assessments of URI symptoms when parents or children reported they were sick. This paper demonstrates feasibility in terms of compliance and acceptance by families, and describes methods for assessing URI symptoms and episodes.