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Paired Evaluation: Preliminary Report from the Pilot Evaluation of the Paired App
Gabb, J. Aicken, C. Witney, T.
Gabb, J.
Aicken, C.
Witney, T.
Publication Date
2021-03
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© 2021 The Authors and the Open University. This article was confirmed to be open access by the lead author.
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Abstract
Romantic relationships are extremely important to people’s happiness and well-being, yet many
people do not seek advice with relationship issues or may do so only once serious problems arise.
Paired is a commercially available relationships app. Launched in October 2020, it currently has over
12,000 daily active users, predominantly in the US and UK.
Public self-management of care (i.e. self-help) is target for technological investment, as digital health
and well-being apps gain popularity. There are currently over 318,000 health apps available
worldwide, with a further 200+ new health apps coming onto the market each day. Research has
shown that mobile health (mHealth, i.e. health and well-being apps) can be effective in supporting
behaviour change: helping us to adopt and maintain healthy behaviours. However, many health and
well-being apps are not based on reliable research evidence, the only indication of an app’s quality
deriving from ‘user reviews’. Paired is evidence-based. Focusing on the area of romantic
relationships, it seeks to support and enhance couple relationships, before the point when
professional help may be needed.
Researchers at The Open University (OU) and the University of Brighton evaluated the effectiveness
of Paired, using a mixed methods approach...
We created the Quality of Relationship Index (QRI), a rigorously-developed measure of overall
relationship quality. We found that quality of communication – the underpinning dimension of all
relationship maintenance behaviour – was most strongly related to overall relationship quality...
In developing the QRI, we explored change in different aspects of relationship quality, whilst using
Paired...
Integration of the findings from our analyses of different data sources, and the ‘dose-response’
effect that we consistently observed, together give us confidence that Paired is responsible for the
improvements to relationship quality that its users enjoy.
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Citation
Gabb J, Aicken C, Di Martino S and Witney T (2021) Paired Evaluation: Preliminary Report from the Pilot Evaluation of the Paired App. The Open University and The University of Brighton.
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Report