Welcome to Martha and Nick’s newly updated, longer and better polyamory study! We’re glad you are here.
In response to excellent feedback, we have updated and improved our study to include much more information. There are many advantages to this decision, including more nuanced data and many more options for what to include in our findings. We are very excited about it! The big disadvantage is that everyone who wants to participate in the study has to do the survey from the beginning, even if they completed the former survey. And it’s longer this time. Much longer. However, you can still come and go from it, so you don’t have to do it all in one sitting. We really appreciate your feedback and hope you will be willing to fill out our survey for the first time, or for the second time if you already did the original one.
Our intent is to study various aspects of polyamorous relationships in an effort to improve the quality of health and mental health care available to diverse populations.
This study has been approved by the Internal Review Board for Human Research at Edgewood College, and is partial fulfillment of graduation requirements from a Master’s degree program in Marriage and Family Therapy.
If you are currently in a polyamorous relationship, are 18 or older, and might be interested in participating in the study, click on the following link:
Please note: question 5 asks how long you have considered yourself to be polyamorous. If you do NOT identify as polyamorous, but are in a consensual open relationship, please feel free to put “0” in that field.
This link will give you access to the online survey. Participation in this survey is completely voluntary, and you can stop at any time. It is expected to take between 20 minutes and an hour depending on your relationship situation.
Whether or not you decide to participate in the study, you are welcome to return to this blog after January 1, 2012 for access to our results and final paper.
We will close access to the survey on October 15, 2011 in order to begin analyzing the results, so if you want to participate, make sure you have completed your survey by that date.
Feel free to share this website with anyone else you know who might be interested, and thank you so much!
Polyamory Study 
Comments on: "New and Improved Polyamory Study!" (20)
Just completed the survey. I think it has inherent mental health system biases, as well as other Western/American cultural biases. Thank you for the ability to comment and participate. Good luck with your project. Try to keep an open mind, people really don’t fit into single boxes, and challenges are opportunities.
Thanks for the feedback Joseph, please check back after January 1, 2012 to check out our findings. We appreciate your participation.
I’m having trouble submitting my responses to this survey. When I click ‘save and exit’ I get a page that says: ‘Please use the following url to return your survey’. When I paste this url into my browser, it takes me back to the beginning of the survey, rather than to a submissions page.
Megaera,
I could see how this could be confusing. Unfortunately the survey tool we are using is not very sophisticated so it can not differentiate how many relationships a respondent has, as there is space for up to four relationships. If you have filled out the survey for all your current relationships (up to four) ignore the copy and paste URL, as you are done. The URL is for respondents who do not have enough time to fill out the entire survey in one session, and want to revisit their survey at a later time. Thanks again for your participation, we appreciate it.
Hiya,
The survey looks great – I’ve just finished filling it out. Just one thing: in the past I’ve been partnered with a person who uses gender-neutral pronouns, and the pronouns ‘he’ or ‘she’ don’t work for loads of people and would make the partner-details section of the survey really difficult reading. It’d be ace to see the phrasing there changed to ‘his/her/their’!
Ludi,
Thank you so much for your participation and feedback. We will certainly look into that. Please check back after January 1st, 2012 to take a look at our findings.
‘Their’ actually works swimmingly as a gender neutral pronoun on its own, and gets rid of the clunkiness of he/she.
So the ‘save and exit’ has submitted my form? Excellent, thank you! 🙂
I clicked Save and Exit after entering in the stuff about my partner. We have an open relationship, and I currently have no other romantic or intimate relationships, but the form assumed I had another partner, which seems like a bug.
@B Strand,
If you have filled out the survey for all your current relationships, you are done! Ignore the IP address pop-up, if you clicked saved and exit your survey is completed. The generated link is for participants who do not have enough time to fill out their entire survey in one sitting. Thanks for your feedback and the time you took to fill out our survey.
Survey was a bit confusing. My husband filled it out, but it didn’t work when I tried for some reason. One per IP?
Miranda,
Hmm, the one per IP address setting is not turned on. Are you starting a new survey or following the link that is generated after your husband has submitted the survey? We will look into the problem, if you could give us more detail on it, that would be greatly appreciated.
Just did the survey. At the bottom of the fourth(?) page (the first really long one asking about my attitudes towards my partners) there were both “save & exit” and “next” buttons. When i pressed next the fifth page asked exactly the same questions as the fourth one. So i just clicked back button to make sure i’d get at least some responses saved and pressed the “save & exit” button.
Jussi, if you have answered the questions about your current partner(s), then you are finished. If you clicked, save and exit you are actually done with the survey. Thanks for your participation!
I was wondering since I am polyamorous and have been in poly relationships in the past, but am currently single, if I’d be allowed to take the survey as well. I’d love to participate if I’m able.
Anna,
Unfortunately, if you currently aren’t in any relationships you don’t fit the parameters of our study. Thanks for your interest!
Is there any way to sign up to be notified when you release the results? Will you announce them on this blog, for instance?
Thanks!
Cyn
technomom,
Yes, our finished paper will eventually be available on this blog. It should be sometime after the first of year, 2012. Feel free to check back after that date. Thanks for your interest!
I’m a little annoyed also about the lack of ability to take the survey if you’re not currently in any relationships. There are poly single people! We’ve had serious, long term poly relationships in the past, we have knowledge to share, we are a part of the community. Your lack of options for tallying people who are poly and single really echoes a common misconception that you can’t have a sexual orientation without having a current relationship that demonstrates that orientation. I generally expect more from poly people.
Emma,
We are both very sorry to hear that you feel excluded, but our current research project only deals with poly people who are currently in relationships. We have gotten several good ideas for future research from everyone’s comments, including yours. Thanks so much!