Participants were recruited through various channels, including newspaper articles, posts in online forums, and advertisements displayed at universities, medical practices, and fitness centers. In waves T1 through T5 and T10, the couples were invited to come to the Department of Psychology at the University of Zurich, where they filled in questionnaires and were videotaped during two dyadic interaction tasks and a conflict discussion. In the dyadic interaction setting the couples were videotaped in a standardized setting of eight minutes duration for each partner in the role of the speaker. The speaker was instructed to tell his/her partner (listener) about a relevant stress episode that recently had happened outside the relationship. After eight minutes the roles of speaker and listener were reversed. This paradigm allows the examination of stress communication of partner A and dyadic coping of partner B and vice versa in an economical, reliable and valid way. Furthermore, there was a standard conflict discussion. The couple was invited to discuss a relevant topic often causing conflicts in the relationship. Additionally, they completed questionnaires at home. Waves T6 through T9 included online questionnaires only. In wave T10 we carried out additional semi-structured interviews on the couple relationship, dyadic coping and gratitude. Furthermore, a video review task was conducted, where individuals viewed back their support conversation and commented on the partner's dyadic coping behavior.
