Author ORCID Identifier
Document Type
Dissertation
Date of Award
2025
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department
Psychology
First Advisor
Beth Boyd, Noah Emery
Abstract
This dissertation, leveraging secondary data from the Colorado EMA Project, investigates the dynamic relationships between mobility patterns, stress, and alcohol-related negative consequences among undergraduate college students (N=182, Mage 18.47). Grounded in Dynamic Systems Theory (DST), the study explores daily variations in mobility and stress using a Dynamic Structural Equation Model (DSEM). The analysis aims to understand how these variables interact within and between individuals, focusing on the role of baseline alcohol-related negative consequences as measured by the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT). Findings reveal a significant autoregressive effect for stress, indicating that higher stress on one day predicts higher stress on the following day. However, no autoregressive effects were observed for mobility, suggesting that daily mobility patterns were less stable across the sampling period. Additionally, cross-lagged relationships between stress and mobility were non-significant, indicating limited direct influence of one variable on the other across days. Post-hoc adjustments to the model introduced reciprocal effects between mobility and stress to improve model fit, and both effects were significant. Baseline AUDIT scores were significantly associated only with higher person-mean mobility, reflecting a potential connection between alcohol-related negative consequences and greater variability in daily movement patterns. No significant effects were observed for stress levels, stress inertia, stress innovation, mobility inertia, or mobility innovation. These findings advance the conceptualization of mobility as a meaningful behavioral construct in psychological research while emphasizing its complex relationship with daily stress and alcohol-related outcomes. The study underscores the need for further exploration of these dynamics in real-world settings, particularly to refine theoretical models and identify actionable pathways for intervention. Findings will be further discussed, and recommendations for future research and practical applications will be provided.
Subject Categories
Clinical Psychology | Psychology
Keywords
Alcohol Dynamic structural equation modeling Ecological momentary assessment EMA Mobility Stress
Number of Pages
98
Publisher
University of South Dakota
Recommended Citation
Hatwan, Mason, "Mobility-Stress Dynamics: What Audit Scores Can Tell Us About Mobility Patterns and Stress" (2025). Dissertations and Theses. 361.
https://red.library.usd.edu/diss-thesis/361