Auckland Stress and Support Study, 2013-15 (REACH 03)

85 romantic couples (N = 170) from Auckland, New Zealand participated in study examining emotion regulation and support processes when facing significant stressful challenges. Couples were cisgender heterosexual couples primarily recruited from the community via newspaper and facebook advertisements. Couples were married (42.4%), cohabiting (36.5%), or in serious dating relationships (20%). Mean relationship length was 7.82 years (SD = 10.15), and mean participant age was 33.05 (SD = 13.55) years. In an initial lab-based session, participants completed baseline questionnaires and then had two video-recorded discussions (experimenter not present) about (a) a "warm-up" discussion on events of the week, and (b) one partner's significant source of stress. Physiological monitoring also occurred prior to these interactions (preceded by a baseline assessment phase). Participants then completed post-discussion questionnaires and then privately reviewed their recording of their discussion to rate their emotions, emotion regulation and perceptions during each 30-sec. portion of the discussion. Participants also completed online questionnaires every three months for the following year. Ethical approval was obtained from the University of Auckland Human Participants Ethics Committee (8781).