5 Verbs for Couples - Pilot Study

January 9, 2026 updated by: Allen Barton, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

5 Verbs for Couples: Program Study

The current research is designed to implement and evaluate 5 Verbs for Couples, a new relationship education program that can be completed individually or by both partners together. Involvement will entail completing 3 surveys over a 2-month period. After completing the first survey, a subset of individuals will be randomly assigned to participate in a 3-session online program and answer questions about their experience in the program. The remaining individuals will receive access to the program approximately 2 months later, after completing the third survey.

Study Overview

Status

Not yet recruiting

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Estimated)

200

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Contact

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

  • Adult
  • Older Adult

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • A resident of United States
  • 18 years of age or older
  • Married, engaged, or living with your partner for at least 6 months
  • Willing to participate in online relationship-focused programming

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Severe form(s) of intimate partner violence are occurring in the relationship

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Prevention
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Treatment
5 verbs for couples participants
Behavioral: 5 Verbs for Couples
The program consists of an overview and three accompanying sessions, each approximately 30-45 minutes in length. The new program developed by the project PI is organized around five verbs to help strengthen couple relationship. For each of the three sessions, content includes information on increasing gratitude between partners, building friendship and connection, addressing challenges and hardships, being a team, communication, and dedication. This psychoeducational program is largely informative in nature, with recommended thought and/or written exercises for individuals to complete regarding how program material applies to their relationship. Individuals are provided a link to access the program and then watch/click through session activities at a time and location of their choosing (similar to an online self-directed training or course).
No Intervention: Control
No intervention. Waitlist control group

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Change in Relationship Satisfaction
Time Frame: Baseline, 1 month follow-up, 2-month follow-up
Couple satisfaction index
Baseline, 1 month follow-up, 2-month follow-up
Change in intervention-targeted behavior
Time Frame: Baseline, 1-month follow-up, 2-month follow-up
5 Verbs for Couples cognitive-behavioral indicators (new measure created for this study)
Baseline, 1-month follow-up, 2-month follow-up

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Change in psychological distress
Time Frame: Baseline, 1-month, 2-month follow-up
Kessler 6 item psychological distress
Baseline, 1-month, 2-month follow-up

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

Helpful Links

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Estimated)

April 1, 2026

Primary Completion (Estimated)

December 31, 2027

Study Completion (Estimated)

December 1, 2028

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

January 9, 2026

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

January 9, 2026

First Posted (Actual)

January 20, 2026

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

January 20, 2026

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

January 9, 2026

Last Verified

January 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 23761

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

NO

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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