JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Interpersonal communication is critical to the health of romantic relationships. Emotional disclosure, coupled with perceived partner responsiveness, fosters closeness and adjustment (better mood and relationship satisfaction). Holding back from disclosure, in contrast, is associated with increased distress and decreased relationship satisfaction. Prior studies assessing these constructs have been cross-sectional and have utilized global retrospective reports of communication. No study has yet assessed holding back from disclosure using smartphone-based ecological momentary assessment (EMA). In addition, EMA studies assessing perceived partner responsiveness have not taken advantage of smartphone ownership, instead requiring website access or use of study-provided devices.

Objective:

(1) To examine usability and acceptability of a smartphone app designed to assess partner communication, closeness, mood, and relationship satisfaction over 14 days. (2) To examine between- versus within-person variability of key constructs to inform utility of their capture via EMA using participants’ own handheld devices.

Methods:

Adult community volunteers in a married or cohabiting partnered relationship received two smartphone prompts per day, one in the afternoon and one in the evening, for 14 days. At each prompt, participants were asked whether they had conversed with their partner either since awakening (afternoon prompt) or since the last assessment (evening prompt). If yes, a series of items assessed enacted communication, perceived partner communication, closeness, mood, and relationship satisfaction (evening only). One week after the end of the 14-day phase, participants were interviewed by phone to assess perceptions of the app. Content analysis was employed to identify key themes.

Results:

Participants (N = 27; M = 36 years old; 89% female, 93% Caucasian, and 7% Hispanic) responded to 555 of 701 total prompts sent (79%) and completed 553 of those assessments. Among prompts responded to, 79% were characterized by a report of having conversed with one’s partner. This rate was higher for the evening versus afternoon timepoint (86% versus 72%), p = .005. The app was seen as highly convenient and easy to use, Ms = 4.15 and 4.39 on a 1-5 scale, respectively. Qualitative analyses indicated that participants found the app generally easy to navigate, but the response window too short (45 minutes) and the random nature of notification arrival vexing. With respect to variability of the app-delivered items, intra-class correlation coefficients were generally <.40, indicating that the majority of the variability in each measure was at the within-person level. Notable exceptions were enacted disclosure and relationship satisfaction.

Conclusions:

Findings support usability and acceptability of the app, with valuable user input to modify timing windows in future work. Findings also underscore the utility of an intensive repeated measures approach given meaningful day-to-day variation (greater within- versus between-person variability) in communication and mood.