DOI: 10.15139/s3/qnq2yd
title: Couples and Technology Study, 2020

description: 433 participants (Mage = 22.72, SDage = 3.77; 198 males, 228 females, seven did not specify) were recruited from a large Canadian university to participate in a study on how cell phone use in both an experimental lab setting and in naturalistic daily life impacts couples' perceptions, interactions, and relationship satisfaction. To be eligible, participants had to be at least 18 years old, in a romantic relationship (of any sexual orientation) for at least three months, and own a smartphone. Prior to the lab visit, participants completed an online questionnaire about personality traits, well-being, relationship satisfaction, and social media and technology use. Of the 433 participants who completed the initial questionnaire, 388 participants came to the lab session. Due to technical issues, five participants’ responses were not saved, resulting in a final sample size of 383 participants (Ncouple = 194, Mage = 22.87, SDage = 3.82, RangeAge = 18 – 38, MedianAge = 22; 176 males, 200 females, 7 other). Of these participants, the majority reported that they were in an exclusive dating relationship (62%), followed by cohabiting (17%), married (6.5%), and engaged (4.4%). Participants were asked to indicate the extent to which they identified as straight/heterosexual versus not straight using a 1 (disagree strongly) to 7 (agree strongly) scale (NAgreeStrongly = 185, NAgree = 98, NAgreeALittle = 22, NNeutral = 10, NDisagreeALittle = 11, NDisagree = 22, NDisagreeStrongly = 33). During the lab visit, participants were randomly assigned to one of two conditions: (1) phone presence (N = 198), whereby participants were allowed to have their phones with them during the discussions and completed the questionnaires using their phones; (2) phone absence (N = 185), whereby participants’ phones were removed from the room before the discussions began, and participants completed the questionnaires on an iPad provided to them. Then, couples engaged in three 10-minute conversations: (1) unstructured discussion; (2) conflict discussion; and (3) positive discussion. After each conversation, participants completed a post-interaction questionnaire assessing interaction quality, relationship closeness, and both self- and partner-emotions. Each interaction was videotaped. Participants received $20 for completing the initial questionnaire and the lab visit. Following the lab portion of the study, participants were prompted once per day for five days to complete a questionnaire assessing their phone use, relationship quality, and both self- and partner-emotions. Participants were prompted at 5:00pm each day and were given until 12:00pm the following day to complete the questionnaire. In total, 342 participants completed at least one daily diary questionnaire (Ncouple = 171, Mage = 22.95, SDage = 3.86, RangeAge = 18 – 38, MedianAge = 22; 156 males, 179 females, 7 other). On average, participants completed 2.87 daily diary questionnaires, with 86 participants (Ncouple = 50) completing all 5 days of questionnaires. The average relationship length was 25.29 months (SD = 26.08), and the majority of participants were in an exclusive dating relationship (63%), followed by cohabiting (18%), married (6.7%), and long-distance (4.4%). The majority of participants strongly identified as straight/heterosexual (NAgreeStrongly = 168, NAgree = 88, NAgreeALittle = 18, NNeutral = 8, NDisagreeALittle = 11, NDisagree = 18, NDisagreeStrongly = 30). Although this portion of the study was not mandatory, participants received an extra $20 if they completed it. Finally, participants received follow-up questionnaires one month and three months after with an abbreviated version of the initial questionnaire. This study was approved by the institutional research ethics board at McGill University (IRB# 372-0217).