Kids’ Daily Activity Spaces, Physical Activity and Stress: Linking Real-Time Geospatial Data with Other Real-Time Data Sources in a Sample of Southern California Children

Malia Jones, University of Southern California
Genevieve Fridlund Dunton, University of Southern California

This study combines several emerging methodologies in spatial demography. In a sample of children ages 9-13 in Southern California (n=120), we used ecological momentary assessment (EMA) to capture in-situ self-reports of stress, affect, and other markers of psychological state. Using timestamps, we linked these reports to the participants’ corresponding geographic locations as recorded by global positioning systems (GPS) and to their levels of physical activity as measured by accelerometer. Our study addresses three methodological issues: 1) abstracting characteristics of places from GPS data and comparing them to subjective perceptions of places; 2) linking GPS data to EMA and physical activity accelerometer data; and 3) constructing activity spaces as a tool for summarizing geospatial data across specific time windows of interest. Finally we address the substantive question of associations between characteristics of GPS-identified places and the study participants’ physical activity, affective state, and stress level.