## **Recruitment Strategies** ## Participants will be recruited from various sources, including Kijiji, Facebook group pages (e.g. buy and sell groups), an email list of past participants interested in participating in future research, and flyers posted around Western University and the surrounding London, Ontario community. The advertisements will solicit volunteers to participate in a study about daily experiences in relationships and sexuality, and provide an email to contact if interested. Potential participants who contact this email will be asked a series of questions determining if they meet the study's inclusion criteria, and to have their partner contact the email provided as well if they are interested in participating. The pre-screening procedure will then be repeated with the partner. If both partners meet the inclusion criteria and wish to participate in the study, the couple will then be enrolled in the study. ## **Planned Sample** ## Approximately 125 heterosexual romantic couples will be recruited for this study. To be eligible for this research, both members of a couple must consent to participate, must be involved in a romantic relationship of at least 4 months duration, must live together in a heterosexual, sexually active, monogamous arrangement, and both members of the couple must have reliable access to the internet. Additionally, participants must be able to speak and read English fluently, and be at least 18 years of age or older. ## **Procedures** ## Participants will be told that the purpose of this study is to better understand individuals' relationship and sexual experiences in their current romantic relationship. Participation in this study will occur entirely online, and involves anonymously and privately answering a number of questionnaires over 25 days. For each survey, participants will be emailed a link (sent through the Qualtrics email system) that will re-direct them to a survey hosted on Qualtrics. The link will be set to expire in 24 hours, so participants will not be able to fill out a survey after the next survey arrives 24 hours later. Although the link will be available for 24 hours, participants will be asked to complete the survey by 11:59PM on the date they receive the survey. This study begins with a Pretesting survey, beginning with a letter of information and consent. Then participants will be given a number of questions that gather background information about participants, their partner, and their relationship. The pretest will be used to confirm eligibility for the study. Both members of each couple must consent to take part in this study, and both partners must meet the inclusion criteria. If one or both partners do not meet the inclusion criteria, both partners will not be invited to participate in the remaining sessions. Additional questionnaires (see Pretesting questionnaire doc) are also provided. If both members of a couple are eligible to participate, then they will be asked to complete a short questionnaire daily for 21 days. The daily questionnaire rotates on odd and even days, so the same set of questions are asked on Days 3, 5, 7, etc., and a different set of questions are asked on Days 4, 6, 8, etc. Finally, participants will be asked to take the Final Questionnaire, after which point they have completed the study. Couple members will be asked to respond to the questionnaires separately and anonymously, and their responses will never be shown to each other. The Pretesting and Final Questionnaires take approximately 30 minutes to complete, and the Daily questionnaire takes 10 minutes or less to complete. Participants are told that they may choose to withdraw from the study at any time without penalty. ## **Compensation** ## As compensation for taking part in this study, couples will be provided the opportunity to earn 70CAD (35CAD each for each couple member) if they participate in all aspects of the study. If one partner misses some components of the study, the other partner will still receive compensation for each aspect of the study that they themselves have participated in. Participants can earn 2CAD for taking the Pretesting Questionnaire; 1CAD for each Diary Survey they contribute; and 2CAD for taking the Final Questionnaire. Additionally, participants who contribute to all these study elements (i.e. 100% completion) will receive a further 10CAD in compensation. If a participant chooses to withdraw from the study, they will receive compensation for all aspects of the study they that they participated in until that point. If their partner chooses to withdraw from the study, they will still be enrolled in the study and will receive compensation for all aspects of the study that they complete.