[Data Note] Mood in the Moment, an Ecological Momentary Assessment of Depression and Mental Health within the Twins Early Development Study (TEDS)

Depression commonly onsets in adolescence with individuals often experiencing recurrent episodes later in life; thus, identifying the mechanisms, risk and protective factors which impact depression trajectories is key. Longitudinal cohort studies examine key characteristics to understand depression development across the lifespan whilst ecological momentary assessment (EMA) captures how mental health is impacted from moment-to-moment. This data note describes a dataset from a six-week EMA study of 430 participants recruited from the Twins Early Development Study (TEDS), a longitudinal cohort (n = 338 female; mean age 29.5; 93 current mental health diagnoses), including three daily surveys and four questionnaires (a total of 130 data points per participant). Participants were split by depression trajectories and repeated measures were gathered on depression (PHQ-8/9/SMFQ), anxiety (GAD-2/7), self-esteem (RSE), cognitive thinking style (CSQ), resilience (BRS), sociability, location, daily activities, diet, exercise, substance use, sleep, mental health treatment, recent life events, pain, and reproductive and menstrual factors. Participants completed 84% (n = 45461) of surveys and 94% (n = 1616) of questionnaires. Mean differences were found between trajectories, most notably between Adolescent Persistent and Stable Low trajectories including for SMFQ (M = 13.49, SD = 5.81 vs. M = 3.59, SD = 3.45), GAD-7 (M = 10.68, SD = 4.72 vs. M = 4.55, SD = 3.51), and daily anxiety and depression symptoms (PHQ-9: M = 350.61, SD = 196.74 vs. M = 107.14, SD = 121.65; GAD-2:M = 79.58, SD = 60.44 vs. M = 23.5, SD = 38.60). To allow future researchers independence when utilising the current dataset, no outliers have been removed. No imputation of missing data has been completed; data should be interpreted with caution. Despite this, collecting EMA data within longitudinal cohorts is a novel method presenting many exciting opportunities to understand the long-term development of mental health alongside moment-to-moment impacts.