The MoodWheel app: validation and factor structure of a new tool for the assessment of mood based on the experience sampling method

Abstract

Background

The MoodWheel app is a newly developed tool that uses experience sampling method (ESM) for assessing negative and positive emotions, based on the circumplex model of emotions and the binary model of distress, and including behavioral and heart rate (HR) measurement via photoplethysmography and the possibility to personalize the application with additional measures. Aims: This study was designed to assess the factorial structure, reliability and validity of the MoodWheel (MW) application for evaluating emotions in children, adolescents.

Methods

A sample of 490 children and adolescents were recruited from the schools. Internal consistency was assessed via Cronbach’s alpha test. Concurrent validity was assessed by evaluating the correlations between MW and Profile of Emotional Distress scale (PED) scores, in terms of functional/dysfunctional negative and positive emotions.

Results

Results obtained show that MW has good to excellent internal consistency and test-retest reliability, while the convergent validity was also adequate. Moreover, we found support for the organization of the MW based on the binary model of distress, given the predictive value found for the irrational and rational beliefs.

Conclusions

The MW application is a useful and easy to use tool that can be used for the accurate measurement of emotions, which will be complimented in future with additional behavioral parameters to provide a comprehensive and dynamic assessment.

Keywords:

• MoodWheel
• ecological momentray assessment
• EMA/ESM
• experience sampling method

Acknowledgements

We report how we determined our sample size, all data exclusions, all manipulations, and all measures in the study. The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are not publicly available but are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Ethical approval

All procedures performed in study involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional research committee. They study was approved by the Scientific Council of the university with the approval number 40TT/25.02.2022 and number 141TT/17.06.2022 and preregistered in Clinical Trials with no NCT05424601 and NCT05257642.

Informed consent

Informed consent was obtained from all parents for the children included in the study.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest associated with this publication.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by a grant awarded to the first author from the Romanian National Authority for Scientific Research, CNCS—UEFISCDI (Grant number PN-III-P4-ID-PCE-2020-2170) and CCCDI-UEFISCDI, project number PN-III-P2-2.1-PED-2021-3882, within PNCDI III.