Relocation and Romantic Relationships - Longitudinal, 2019-2022

We obtained a sample of 455 participants (i.e., 227 couples and 1 individual) who relocated to a different city, state/province, or country, with one partner who initiated the couple’s move (i.e., relocaters, who typically moved for career opportunities), and the other partner who accommodated their partner’s initiation to move (i.e., trailers). Couples moved an average of 2,702 kilometers (range: 18km to 15,535km), with some moving to a different city (23.6%), most moving to a different province/state (46%), and others moving internationally (29.8%). Participants filled out a baseline survey ~2 months before couples moved, 5 shorter bi-weekly surveys in the wake of the move, and follow-up surveys at 3, 6, 9, and 12 months post-move. Attrition was relatively low but increased over time (Ns: 1st bi-weekly = 423, 2nd bi-weekly = 406, 3rd bi-weekly = 400, 4th bi-weekly = 395, 5th bi-weekly = 384, 3mo follow-up = 365, 6mo follow-up = 347, 9mo follow-up = 326, 12mo follow-up = 288). Some attrition is due to couples that broke up over the course of the study (N = 38, 8.3%). Participants were recruited via a wide variety of ways, such as through moving service companies, relocation offices of large companies, universities, and hospitals, and various online networking sites (e.g., kijiji, Craigslist, Reddit, Facebook groups). Couples were eligible when both partners spoke English, were over the age of 18, were in a romantic relationship, currently lived together, and importantly, when they were going to relocate with their partner in at least two months, which was primarily for one of the partners (e.g., to support their career opportunities). Interested couples were enrolled after they had a phone call with a research team member to confirm their eligibility and explain the study procedure. Each participant received $10 CAD for the baseline survey, $7 CAD for each bi-weekly survey (5 bi-weekly surveys X $7 CAD = $35 CAD), and $15 CAD for each follow-up survey (4 follow-up surveys X $15 CAD = $60 CAD). Participants also received a bonus of $15 CAD if they completed all of the study surveys or all but one of the study surveys. In total, participants could receive up to $120 CAD ($240 CAD per couple), or the equivalent in another currency. Participants ranged in age from 18 to 54 (M = 29.8, SD = 5.8), 51% identified as women, 46.6% as men, 2% as non-binary, 0.2% as transgender, and 0.2% as agender. The majority identified as heterosexual (80%), with others identifying as bisexual (7.9%), lesbian (3.3%), queer (2.2%), asexual (2.2%), gay (1.8%), pansexual (1.8%), or “other” (e.g., androsexual; 0.9%). Most participants identified as White (North American/European, 62.9%) and others identified as East Asian (8.8%), South Asian (8.1%), Black (7.5%), Latin American (4.2%), bi- or multi-ethnic (e.g., White/Black, 4.6%), Native American/First Nations (0.7%), or “other” (e.g., Middle Eastern, South-East Asian, 3.3%). All participants were living together with their partner and were in their current relationship for 6.26 (SD = 4.98) years on average. Most participants were married (47.5%) or engaged (9.2%), while others indicated they were dating (27.5%), common-law (14.3%), or “other” (e.g., domestic partnership, 1.5%). About a quarter of the participants had children (23.1%), with most of these having one (13.4%) or two (8.4%) children. This project was approved by the University of Toronto research ethics board on December 14, 2018 (#00036971).