Modeling Careless Responding in Ambulatory Assessment Studies Using Multilevel Latent Class Analysis: Factors Influencing Careless Responding

As the number of studies using ambulatory assessment (AA) has been increasing across diverse fields of research, so has the necessity to identify potential threats to AA data quality such as careless responding. To date, careless responding has primarily been studied in cross-sectional surveys. The goal of the present research was to identify latent profiles of momentary careless responding on the occasion level and latent classes of individuals (who differ in the distribution of careless responding profiles across occasions) on the person level using multilevel latent class analysis (ML-LCA). We discuss which of the previously proposed indices seem promising for investigating careless responding in AA studies, and we show how ML-LCA can be applied to model careless responding in intensive longitudinal data. We used data from an AA study in which the sampling frequency (3 vs. 9 occasions per day, 7 days, n = 310 participants) was experimentally manipulated. We tested the effect of sampling frequency on careless responding using multigroup ML-LCA and investigated situational and respondent-level covariates. The results showed that four Level 1 profiles ("careful," "slow," and two types of "careless" responding) and four Level 2 classes ("careful," "frequently careless," and two types of "infrequently careless" respondents) could be identified. Sampling frequency did not have an effect on careless responding. On the person (but not the occasion) level, motivational variables were associated with careless responding. We hope that researchers might find the application of an ML-LCA approach useful to shed more light on factors influencing careless responding in AA studies.