Systematic review and meta-analysis of stress assessment in young people’s daily lives

<p>Stress is a major risk factor for mental disorders, many of which first emerge during adolescence. Given the proliferation of studies of stress in daily life, we systematically reviewed how stress is conceptualised, operationalised, and quantified in youths’ everyday lives (preregistration: https://osf.io/cxpmw). Two independent reviewers screened PubMed, MEDLINE, PsycINFO, Web of Science, Embase, and preprint servers for intensive longitudinal assessment studies of stress (≥1 measurement/day for ≥5 days) in participants aged ≤25 years. Design, measures, sampling, and risk of bias (adapted NIH tool) were extracted, and comparable results evaluated using multilevel random-effects meta-analysis. Across 180 identified studies (N=27,515), designs and stress measurement approaches showed substantial heterogeneity. Despite this, daily stress was robustly associated with depression (r=0.30-0.35, 95% CI 0.21-0.45) and anxiety (r=0.36-0.55, 95% CI 0.28-0.60). Emerging best practices and key literature gaps are highlighted.</p>