What is it all about?
Our aim is to take a closer look at love relationships in times of the coronavirus. We want to identify factors that help or challenge couples under unusually stressful conditions, such as the current pandemic. We hope that this will facilitate the development and deployment of effective means of prevention and intervention for couples facing unusual challenges in the future. To be able to draw valid conclusions, we need to understand how the dynamics and the development of the current situations influence changes in relationships, and therefore the study will include several assessments.
What does the study comprise?
There will be 4 quick assessments:
- In the first assessment we will ask you to complete some questionnaires about your relationship, how you cope with the current situation. It will also include some questions about yourself, your way of reacting and coping in general, because these factors are known to influence our close relationships. This first questionnaire will take about 20 minutes.
- In the second and third assessments (at 10-day intervals), we will ask you to complete a small portion of the previous questionnaires about your current relationship situation, relationship satisfaction, and levels of strain. They will take about 5-10 minutes.
- In a follow-up assessment (after 6 months) we will ask you to answer some final questions about how your relationship has evolved. This will take approximately 10 to 15 minutes.
Who can participate?
All individuals currently in a relationship are welcome to participate (the sexual orientation or the degree of commitment in the relationship does not matter). If both partners of the couple participate this will be particularly helpful for understanding relationships dynamics. If both of you chose to participate, each partner will nevertheless respond individually.
What do we offer for your participation?
For each 100 participants that complete the study we will donate 50€ to a charity called SOS Children's Villages. This is an independent non-governmental, non-profit international development organization headquartered in Innsbruck, Austria. The organization provides humanitarian and developmental assistance to children in need and protects their interests and rights around the world.
Privacy
Your participation in this study is voluntary. You are free to cancel your participation at any time during this study without any disadvantages. The data will be coded and stored anonymously on the server of the University of Innsbruck and used exclusively for scientific research. Demographic data such as age or gender do not allow for a clear conclusion about your person. In case that your partner participates in the study, your statements (e.g., satisfaction with the relationship) will not be visible to her/him.