The Couples in Everyday Life Study

The Couples in Everyday Life Study at the University of Rochester, led by Principal investigator Dr. Harry Reis, examines partner emotional regulation during the COVID-19 pandemic, that is, how partners help each other cope with the high levels of stress, anxiety and loneliness engendered by the difficult social restrictions necessary for safety during the pandemic. COVID-19 is a unique stressor, fundamentally altering everyday life for couples and creating uncertainty and worry about their own and their family’s health, finances and future. At times like this, with social distancing and isolation, partners are the most important source of support and help for each other in dealing with distress.

 In this important research couples are asked to rate their daily interactions, for a two-week period assessing in which specific ways they felt they were supportive toward their spouse and how supportive their spouse was toward them, among five common strategies. Partners rate their and their partner’s responses among five common helping strategies: situation selection figuring out a way to avoid the things that are making one feel bad), situation modification (figuring out a way to do something about whatever was making one feel bad), attention deployment (distraction), cognitive reappraisal (seeing the situation from a different perspective), and suppression (trying to not show the emotion outwardly). The researchers then examine which strategies appear to be most effective, from both partners' perspectives.

The team’s sample size is large, at 197 couples and they have done preliminary analysis of 142 couples at this time. They anticipate preliminary results by the end of May, with more detailed analyses continuing through the summer.