An experience sampling measure of the key features of rumination.

Objective: Research indicates that rumination can be viewed as a dynamic
process that fluctuates over time, within hours and days. An increasing number
of intensive longitudinal studies on rumination are accordingly being conducted
and published using experiencing sampling methodology (ESM), a technique with
measurements in everyday life. Yet, this literature suffers from a profound caveat:
rumination has so far been conceptualized and measured as a unitary construct in
these ESM studies. This is unfortunate, since such a unitary view contrasts with
prominent contemporary models that regard rumination as a multifaceted construct,
wherein the key features are not interchangeable and should therefore be measured
separately. Moreover, no validated ESM measure of the key features of rumination
has yet been developed. Therefore, we developed and validated an ESM protocol
and the first ESM questionnaire to assess rumination as a multifaceted construct,
measuring five features of rumination.
Method: We conducted an ESM study in a community sample of 40 Frenchspeaking
participants. They answered the five rumination ESM items in French four
times a day for fourteen days. At the end of the ESM assessment period, participants
completed trait-like questionnaires of rumination, depression, and general anxiety.
Results: The ESM rumination items exhibited good psychometric properties,
including excellent within-person variability and convergent validity with
corresponding trait-like constructs.
Conclusions: Although further validation is warranted, this novel ESM
assessment protocol of rumination as a multifaceted construct (validated in French
and translated into English) will allow future researchers to study how rumination’s
features fluctuate and interact with other constructs over time.