Making Sense of Memorable Messages About Infertility: Examining Message Valence by Theme and Sender.

Fertility problems, often called infertility, have been defined as the inability to conceive or maintain pregnancy throughout one year of trying (World Health Organization, 2020). Because fertility problems can present unique medical, emotional, relational, and identity challenges, they are often difficult to talk about, and even well-intentioned messages can be perceived negatively. This study uses Communicated Sense-Making (CSM; Kellas & Kranstuber Horstman, 2015), particularly its mechanism of memorable messages, to explore what types of support-related messages people experiencing infertility find memorable. Results from semi-structured interviews (N = 54) indicate five supra-themes of memorable messages: (a) communicating solidarity; (b) attempting to minimize participants' stress; (c) communicating investment or interest in the patient's experience; (d) sharing expertise; and (e) absolving the patient of responsibility; we identify several sub-themes within each. We also explore patterns between message types, senders, and message valence: message themes were perceived as either positive, negative, or neutral based on the combination of sender and perceived intention. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

How Individuals Use Metaphors to Negotiate Fertility Treatment Decision-Making with Their Romantic Partners.

Fertility problems, or the inability to conceive or carry a pregnancy to term for a period of over 12 months while engaging in unprotected sex, affects 12% of women and 9% of men of childbearing age. To answer calls for more research about individuals' fertility decision-making (DM) with their partners, we conducted in-depth, semi-structured interviews with 53 individuals who have experienced fertility decision-making with a romantic partner at some point in their lives. Our findings indicate at least three primary ways individuals and their partners navigated their decision-making communication in their infertility "journeys:" (1) the Driver-Navigator, (2) Driver-Passenger, and (3) Driver-Backseat Driver approaches. All decision-making communication approaches were viewed by individuals as collaborative (i.e. shared), but varied in degrees of "togetherness" (high, moderate, low) in how they communicated with each other about treatment decisions. Implications include helping couples and their clinicians to be aware of their DM approach(es) and offering alternative DM approaches based on understanding how and why certain approaches may (not) be effective in addressing goals, needs, and identities.

Cancer as Communal: Understanding Communication and Relationships from the Perspectives of Survivors, Family Caregivers, and Health Care Providers.

With cancer increasing in prevalence and high priorities placed on concurrent oncological and palliative care to help meet the familial, spiritual, and individual needs of stakeholders in cancer, research is needed that assesses the factors that facilitate coping across stakeholders in cancer care. We were interested in synthesizing our understanding of communication and relationships among patients, caregivers, and providers based on the reasoning that illness is relational, but often conceptualized and researched from the individual perspectives of various stakeholders. The current study examined the experiences of relational and communication opportunities and challenges during cancer for current and former family caregivers, cancer survivors, and palliative and oncology health care practitioners. The thematic analysis of 30 semi-structured interviews revealed an overarching theme on the benefits of orienting toward cancer as communal, which was, in turn, facilitated or impeded by four additional themes/sets of behaviors: support, presence, perspective-taking, and reframing hope. Results of a cross-case data matrix analysis reveal that stakeholders in different roles experience qualitative differences in their experience of cancer as communal, isolated, or ambivalent. Implications for education, palliative care, and interventions are discussed.

Sense-making, Socialization, and Stigma: Exploring Narratives Told in Families About Mental Illness.

Guided by Communicated Narrative Sense-making Theory (CNSM), the current study investigated mental illness (MI) narratives told within families and the lessons younger members learned from these stories. Individual, semi-structured interviews with young adults (N = 24) revealed that family members, mainly parents, share stories about the MIs of individual family members and narratives reflected themes of struggle and caution. Participants reported learning important lessons from these MI narratives (i.e., MI awareness, importance of understanding MI). Findings illuminate the ways family narratives about MI teach younger members lessons and expectations for managing MI despite sometimes reinforcing MI stigma. Limitations, future directions, and implications for narrative interventions are also discussed.

Communicatively Constructing the Bright and Dark Sides of Hope: Family Caregivers' Experiences during End of Life Cancer Care.

(1) Background: The communication of hope is complicated, particularly for family caregivers in the context of cancer who struggle to maintain hope for themselves and their loved ones in the face of terminality. In order to understand these complexities, the current study examines the bright and dark sides of how hope is communicated across the cancer journey from the vantage point of bereaved family caregivers; (2) Methods: We analyzed interviews with bereaved family caregivers using qualitative thematic and case oriented strategies to identify patterns in the positive and negative lived experiences when communicating about hope at the end of life; (3) Results: Two overarching patterns of hope emerged. Those who experienced hope as particularized (focused on cure) cited communication about false hope, performing (faking it), and avoidance. Those who transitioned from particularized to generalized hope (hope for a good death) reported acceptance, the communication of hope as social support, prioritizing family, and balancing hope and honesty; (4) Conclusion: Family caregivers face myriad complexities in managing the bright and dark sides of hope. Interventions should encourage concurrent oncological and palliative care, increased perspective-taking among family members, and encourage the transition from particularized to generalized hope.

The benefits and risks of telling and listening to stories of difficulty over time: experimentally testing the expressive writing paradigm in the context of interpersonal communication between friends.

The overarching goal of the current study was to determine the impact of talking interpersonally over time on emerging adults' individual and relational health. Using an expressive writing study design (see Frattaroli, 2006), we assessed the degree to which psychological health improved over time for college students who told and listened to stories about friends' current difficulties in comparison with tellers in control conditions. We also investigated the effects on tellers' and listeners' perceptions of each other's communication competence, communicated perspective-taking, and the degree to which each threatened the other's face during the interaction over time to better understand the interpersonal communication complexities associated with talking about difficulty over time. After completing prestudy questionnaires, 49 friend pairs engaged in three interpersonal interactions over the course of 1 week wherein one talked about and one listened to a story of difficulty (treatment) or daily events (control). All participants completed a poststudy questionnaire 3 weeks later. Tellers' negative affect decreased over time for participants exposed to the treatment group, although life satisfaction increased and positive affect decreased across time for participants regardless of condition. Perceptions of friends' communication abilities decreased significantly over time for tellers. The current study contributes to the literature on expressive writing and social support by shedding light on the interpersonal implications of talking about difficulty, the often-overlooked effects of disclosure on listeners, and the health effects of talking about problems on college students' health.