The Processes in Romantic Relationships and Their Impact on Relationship and Personal Outcomes (CouPers) study was a multi-wave longitudinal online study of romantic couples conducted at the University of Basel, Switzerland, between 2016 and 2018.
The study consisted of four waves. Each wave included 14 days of online daily surveys (median time to submit each daily survey in wave 1 = 6 minutes), with an additional battery of surveys on day 1 (+49 minutes) and day 14 (+35 minutes). Waves 1 to 3 were separated by an interval of about six months; waves three and four, by an interval of about 12 months. Participants entered wave 1 in one of 12 monthly cohorts. In subsequent waves participants were permitted to move to a different cohort (if their partner also moved) or to skip a wave if they were unable to participate at the scheduled time. Participants were permitted to participate as singletons if their initial relationship ended, and new partners were invited to join the study.
Participants were compensated with a shopping or cinema voucher to the value of 20 EUR/CHF per wave if they completed the extensive surveys on days 1 and 14 and at least seven of the 14 daily surveys.
Ethical approval for the study was granted by the ethics committee of the Department of Psychology at the University of Basel, Switzerland.
