Self-monitoring in behavioral medicine: Children

Self-monitoring in children is a valuable method for collecting data, some of which may be obtained in no other way. Self-monitoring has been particularly prevalent in behavioral medicine. This article discusses children's monitoring of their own behavior and parental monitoring when the child is too young to self-monitor (e.g., an infant) and the parent is monitoring as a proxy for the child's own monitoring. Factors that influence the choice of who will perform the monitoring and the accuracy of the monitoring are considered. Monitoring may occur for assessment purposes only or may be an active part of treatment; both of these uses of self-monitoring are described. Barriers to accurate self-monitoring, as well as strategies to increase accuracy, are discussed. Self-monitoring is an integral part of disease assessment and management for many children, and the research described provides suggestions for improvements in the use of self-monitoring in children's behavioral medicine in the future.