Women's lifestyle choices

The influence of romantic relationships on health and wellbeing of young women

Karen Woods is conducting this study

THIS STUDY IS NOW CLOSED. THANKYOU TO ALL THE WOMEN WHO PARTICIPATED.

Young women are faced with many life style choices– such as living way from home, career selection, motherhood, and new social relationships.  In making their choices they generally hope to enhance their personal goals.  But do their choices also enhance their health and general well being?

Karen is particularly interested in how romantic relationships affect other aspects of women’s lives.  Young women today face many stressors as a reflection of rapidly changing social, economic and technological conditions.  Many factors will affect how women respond to such stressors.  Romantic relationships can certainly have powerful emotional effects, but whether they also affect other aspects of health and wellbeing is poorly understood.

Karen seeks female volunteers, aged 18 to 35 to complete an electronic questionnaire on their romantic situation, health and lifestyle choices.  She would like to recruit a full representation of young women in the community including those currently in a relationship, those who have had a relationship in the past and those who have never had a romantic relationship. 

If you volunteer, the questionnaire will take about 30 minutes to complete and will ask you about your general background, exercise and diet, work and study and your romantic relationship history.

It is coded, and so no names are used and no information can ever be traced back to you as a volunteer.

Karen is keen to recruit as many participants as possible, the greater the number, the more valuable the study will be in contributing to a better understanding of stress and wellbeing in young women.  It might also encourage you, as a volunteer to examine your own lifestyle and health habits more closely.

To participate in this study:

• Download the questionnaire; click here Save the questionnaire on your computer (we suggest you name it 'choices' and save it on your desktop for ease of access).

• To protect your anonymity, a password is required to open and use the questionnaire.  To receive the password, send a blank email to  womenslifechoices@anhb.uwa.edu.au   and you will be emailed the password within minutes (if you experience any problems either in obtaining the password or opening the questionnaire, please email Karen directly).

• When you open the questionnaire just follow the instructions to fill it in and return it to the investigator.

If you would like further information on the study, please contact Karen by email kwoods@anhb.uwa.edu.au .

This study is being conducted by Karen Woods and supervised by Neville Bruce and Brilliana von Katterfeld, School of Anatomy and Human Biology.  It has been approved by the Human Ethics Committee; The University of Western Australia.

The Human Research Ethics Committee at the University of Western Australia requires that all participants are informed that if they have any complaint regarding the manner in which a research project is conducted it may be given to the researcher or alternatively to the Secretary, Human Research Ethics Committee, Registrar’s Office, University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, WA 6009 (telephone number 6488-3703).