**Recruitment Procedure**
For this study, 150 local couples will be recruited via online and print media, and advertisements will be posted in public places throughout the local community (see “SBRQ – Recruitment Posters”). All study advertisements will direct interested couples to contact the experimenters through e-mail (smartlab@uwo.ca). A standard e-mail will be sent out in response (see “SBRQ – Recruitment Email.docx”) asking interested parties to visit a website that will provide more information about the study and screen interested couples for eligibility. The e-mail will contain the Letter of information, and the website that it will link to will also direct both members of the couple to read the Letter on Information (see “SBRQ – Letter of Information.docx) and answer the screening questions alone and in private (see “SBRQ – Screening Questions.docx”). Couple members will be asked to provide contact information at the end of this screening survey.
Eligible couples will be contacted by phone (see “SBRQ – Telephone Recruitment Script.docx”), where a research assistant will confirm that both members have read the letter of information (and read it too them if they have not), and ask each couple member to verbally consent to study. Couples who consent will be enrolled in the study over the phone. They will be assigned to an anonymous participant number (e.g. 001F & 001M), to help identify the measures recorded over the course of the study, and asked to provide contact information (both phone numbers and emails), so that they can be contacted with study reminders, and to arrange study compensation. Contact information will be stored separately from data provided in this study in an encrypted digital file. Further, customized schedules will be sent to each member of the couple at the outset of the study to help keep them on track. These schedules will include instructions, relevant dates, and hyperlinks for each of study components that are to be conducted online (see “Custom Schedule Template.docx”).
Couples who arrive for the sexual relationship enhancement workshop will be asked to provide written consent (see “SBRQ – Letter of Information.docx”) before further measures are taken. At the end of the sexual relationship enhancement intervention, couples will be asked to provide written consent to their ongoing participation in this study (see “SBRQ – Letter of Information.docx”)
