Who am I? The Interplay of Self & Partner Identities in Relationships Study

If you are …

1) Currently in a romantic relationship
2) At least 18 years old
3) Believe that your partner would also be willing to complete the survey

then I would like to invite you to participate in an online survey.

STUDY PURPOSE - This page describes a research study that Dr. Ronald D. Rogge, principal investigator from the University of Rochester, is conducting to examine how attitudes toward self and partner impact the quality of relationships over time.

STUDY PROCEDURE
Initial Survey: The study involves an online survey that will take approximately 25-35 minutes. The survey contains some personal questions about you, your household, your income and your relationship with your partner/spouse (your feelings toward your partner, positive and negative relationship behaviors, etc.). We would like you to complete the whole survey, but you may skip any questions that you don’t feel comfortable answering. At the end of the initial survey you will be given individual feedback on your personality and your attitudes toward yourself and your relationship.
Short Follow-up Surveys: At the end of the initial survey you will be offered the chance to participate in short follow-up surveys. These surveys are completely optional, take about 10-15 minutes to complete and would be completed 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18, 21 and 24 months from today’s date. For each follow up assessment completed, you will be given a chance of winning $100 in a cash drawing.

CONFIDENTIALITY
To participate in the survey, respondents will need to provide an email address for themselves and their partners. This is the only identifying information that will be collected in the study and it will be used to link their data to their partner’s data, to send invitations for the follow-up surveys to participants, and to link their data from the initial survey to the data they provide in the follow-up surveys. This information will be kept in a strictly confidential manner. It will not be shared with third parties and only investigators on the study will have access to that data. Although the data from known romantic partners participating in the survey will be linked via a couple ID number in our final data set, none of your responses would ever be shared with your partner or vice versa. The responses of all participants will be stored numerically and only the investigators on the study will have access to that data. Only summarized data will be presented at meetings or in any publications

INDIVIDUAL FEEDBACK - At the end of the initial survey, you will be offered a chance to view some of your own results in comparison to the rest of the sample. You will be given feedback on 7 dimensions of personality, on 5 dimensions of how you see yourself, on 5 dimensions of how you see your partner, and on 6 dimensions of relationship quality. Please note, this individual feedback is provided for your use only. The investigators will not have access to the individual feedback given and will only analyze the data at an aggregate level.

RISKS - If you participate, there is a risk that you might experience some discomfort from answering questions about your relationship. This study has been reviewed by an Institutional Review Board at the University of Rochester and has been determined to be of minimal risk to participants.

BENEFITS - There are no direct benefits to you for participating in this study. However, some couples tend to find that taking time out to answer questions about their marriages can heighten their awareness of themselves and their relationships. University of Rochester students taking the survey through the SONA system will receive 1.0 units of extra credit for participating. Respondents completing the follow-up assessments will have a chance of winning a $100 cash drawing at the end of the study.

VOLUNTARY PARTICIPATION - Your participation in this study is completely voluntary. You are free not to participate or withdraw at any time, for whatever reason without penalty or loss of benefit to which you are entitled. Your answers will be kept strictly confidential.

For more information about this research or if you feel that your participation has resulted in any emotional or physical discomfort you should contact: Ronald D. Rogge at:

University of Rochester, Department of Clinical and Social Psychology
RC Box 270266
Rochester, NY 14627-0266
rogge@psych.rochester.edu

If you have any questions about your rights as a research subject, you may contact: The Human Subjects Protection Specialist at the University of Rochester Research Subjects Review Board, Telephone: 011-585-276-0005. You may also call toll-free at 011-877-449-4441. You may also call this number if you cannot reach the research staff or wish to talk to someone else.

If you are interested in participating in the survey, please click on the link below. Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,
Ronald D. Rogge, Ph.D.