Conceptualization and measurement of students’ momentary mental well-being states: A systematic scoping review

Students in higher education frequently report experiencing poor mental well-being, which can fluctuate throughout the day due to the dynamic nature of their daily lives. This underlines the necessity of capturing students’ momentary mental well-being states. While numerous studies have explored this topic, there is no clear consensus on the conceptualization of student mental well-being (StMWB) states or their measurement in ecological momentary assessment (EMA) studies. This systematic scoping review aims to address this gap by examining the existing literature on StMWB in an EMA context. A comprehensive literature search was conducted, and a total of 82 unique studies and 219 unique momentary mental well-being variables were included. The majority of all variables (n = 166; 75.8%) focused on hedonic, or subjective well-being, while the remainder were classified as eudaimonic well-being (e.g., social and psychological well-being) or as a combination of the two. Only 3.2% of the variables referred specifically to the academic/study experience. Variables were often assessed only once per day, analyzed as a single item, phrased in the present tense, and inconsistently evaluated for reliability and/or validity. Eudaimonic variables were relatively more often described in detail and developed for the study specifically than hedonic variables. Overall, findings suggest that momentary hedonic well-being measures are more prominent in EMA research on StMWB, while momentary eudaimonic measures, though increasingly recognized, remain less common. Given that StMWB is theoretically recognized to encompass both hedonic and eudaimonic dimensions, future research should address this imbalance to better capture the full scope of StMWB states. Keywords: Well-being, Ecological momentary assessment, Experience sampling, Higher education, Review