Jacquelyn Harvey-Knowles

Childless Stepmothers: Communicating with Other Stepmothers about Spouses and Stepchildren

With little known about the stepmother/father household, recent efforts have been made to explore the role of the childless stepmother within the stepfamily. The purpose of the project was to examine what childless stepmothers were discussing regarding their stepfamilies. An inductive approach was utilized for 35 discussion board postings in an online support group for childless stepmothers. Findings suggest that childless stepmothers discuss issues related to their relationship with the significant other. Additionally, stepmothers stress the importance of relationships with other stepmothers in coping with their role as stepmother. Theoretical implications and directions for future research are discussed.

The Information Management Processes of Women Living with HPV

The human papillomavirus (HPV) represents a significant public health burden because of its widespread prevalence, its links to genital warts and cancers, and the negative psychosocial impact of HPV infection and diagnosis. Scholars have attributed some of these negative effects to insufficient knowledge and information about HPV, prompting research on womens HPV information preferences; however, little is known about how women obtain, avoid, and use this information. To address this lacuna, we designed a study to trace the information management processes of women with HPV. Our analysis of interviews with 25 women living with HPV revealed a common sequence of emotional, cognitive, and behavioral responses to the HPV diagnosis. The authors review these findings and articulate their relevance and importance to research, theory, and practice in the discussion.

Verbal Person-Centered Support Provision Quality Following an Exploratory Supportive Skills Intervention

Research suggests that individuals can experience positive physical, mental, and relational outcomes following the reception of high-quality verbal person-centered (VPC) support. In addition, researchers contend that two variables predict the likelihood of high VPC support provision, the first being ability to provide VPC support, and the second consisting of motivation to do so. Nevertheless, few researchers have attempted to increase individuals’ ability or motivation to provide high-quality VPC messages to personal network members. This exploratory investigation assessed whether a supportive skills training intervention prompted increased ability and motivation to utilize high-quality VPC messages across generalized supportive interactions. Participants completed a two-week supportive skills intervention involving classroom-based modules and personal journaling of support conversations. Results provided initial evidence that support interventions can encourage providers to utilize higher quality VPC messages when interacting with distressed network members.

Diagnosing women with HPV: The impact of diagnosis disclosure methods

OBJECTIVE Little data exists on womens HPV diagnosis encounters. This research focuses on impacts of the communicative medium used to inform women of their HPV status. We conducted a qualitative study to identify the mediums used to communicate HPV diagnoses and the impact of each medium on the diagnosis experience. METHOD Twenty-five women with HPV completed semi-structured interviews, which we recorded and transcribed. We relied on grounded theory techniques in both data collection and analysis. RESULTS There are three primary mediums health care providers use to inform women of their HPV diagnosis: phone calls, mailed letters/email, and face-to-face interactions. Implications regarding each medium are identified and discussed. CONCLUSION There are drawbacks associated with the use of each medium that healthcare practitioners should be aware of and seek to avoid. PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS Healthcare providers can utilize descriptions of diagnosis encounters and the recommendations accompanying them to understand and modify ways they choose to inform individuals of an HPV diagnosis.

Helpful and Challenging Support Encounters in the Aftermath of HPV Infection and Diagnosis

Infection and diagnosis with HPV create significant support needs, yet the support experiences and evaluations of women with HPV remain unexplored. This study identified supportive communication behavior perceived as helpful or problematic by women with HPV. Interviews with 25 participants revealed that women find it helpful when supportive others: (a) provide reassurance, information, and validation; (b) attend appointments; (c) facilitate reappraisals; and, (d) listen. Findings also highlighted support challenges, such as disclosure difficulties and problems locating and accessing support groups. The discussion focuses on explanations for and implications of variations in enacted support quality for women with HPV and others managing chronic illnesses.

Caregiver social support quality when interacting with cancer survivors: advancing the dual-process model of supportive communication

Cancer caregivers often experience significant challenges in their motivation and ability to comfort cancer survivors, particularly in a spousal or romantic context. Spousal cancer caregivers have been known to report even greater levels of burden and distress than cancer sufferers, yet still take on the role of acting as an informal caregiver so they can attend to their partner’s needs. The current study tested whether a theoretical model of supportive outcomes—the dual-process model of supportive communication—explained variations in cancer caregivers’ motivation and ability to create high-quality support messages. The study also tested whether participant engagement with reflective journaling on supportive acts was associated with increased motivation or ability to generate high-quality support messages. Based upon the dual-process model, we posited that, following supportive journaling tasks, caregivers of spouses currently managing a cancer experience would report greater motivation but also greater difficulty in generating high-quality support messages, while individuals caring for a patient in remission would report lower motivation but greater ability to create high-quality support messages. Findings provided support for these assertions and suggested that reflective journaling tasks might be a useful tool for improving remission caregivers’ ability to provide high-quality social support to survivors. Corresponding theoretical and applied implications are discussed.

The Impact of Written Emotional Disclosure on Cancer Caregivers’ Perceptions of Burden, Stress, and Depression: A Randomized Controlled Trial

ABSTRACT Spousal cancer caregivers’ emotional and relational health can become compromised over time due to ongoing challenges related to the cancer experience. This warrants a call for the assessment of interventions aimed at improving aspects of caregiver well-being. The current study employed a randomized controlled trial to determine whether emotional disclosure via the use of expressive writing improved spousal cancer caregivers’ perceived caregiver burden, stress, and depression. Participants (N = 64) were assigned to one of the two disclosure conditions: expressive disclosure or benefit finding—or to a time-management control condition. Participants completed three at-home writing sessions at one-week intervals. Results indicated that written forms of emotional disclosure might improve burden, stress, and depression contingent on writing condition. Specifically, both forms of emotional disclosure outperformed the control condition in reducing caregivers’ depression. The control condition outperformed treatments in reducing caregiver stress. Finally, posttest caregiver burden was significantly lower than pretest burden across all writing conditions. This trial was registered with clinicaltrials.gov, ID: NCT02339870

Message processes and their associations with adolescents’ executive function and reports of bullying

Substantial research has identified the negative health outcomes associated with bullying for adolescent victims. Researchers have examined expressive writing as a possible method by which to decrease violence among adolescents. Results of these studies, however, suggest that expressive writing is associated with positive, negative, and neutral outcomes for adolescents. The present study had two aims related to these mixed findings. First, it sought to investigate the association between micro- and macro-level message processes that relate with self-regulation in adolescent writings about bullying and their reports of bullying behavior. Second, it examined whether executive function processes may play a role in explaining the inconsistent results for expressive writing among adolescents. Results identify several message processes that are linked with reports of bullying behavior directly as well as indirectly through the pathway of executive function. Implications for expressive writing interventions aimed at reducing bullying are discussed, particularly with respect to the importance of screening for executive function.

A Relational Turbulence Model Perspective on Communication in Intimate Relationships Post-HPV Testing

ABSTRACT The Relational Turbulence Model (RTM) is a theoretical tool designed to understand how romantic partners navigate tumultuous events. In this article, we explore two RTM constructs, relational uncertainty and partner interference, in the context of romantic partners’ human papillomavirus (HPV) diagnosis outcomes. We examine whether self-reported relational uncertainty and partner interference were differentially associated with a negative self-HPV diagnosis, a positive self-diagnosis, or a partner’s positive diagnosis. Findings suggest that diagnosis type predicts relational uncertainty and partner interference in different ways. We also argue that partners’ reported expression of affect after experiencing a relationally-relevant transition may manifest in both positive and negative ways. Our results support the contention that partners may express both positive and negative affect toward one another, particularly based on the type of HPV diagnosis outcome they receive.

The Provider Expressions of Verbal Person-Centeredness (PE-VPC) Scale: Development and Initial Validation

Verbal person-centeredness (VPC) is an important component in understanding social support, as it is one way to distinguish between supportive messages of different quality and associated outcomes. VPC is typically measured from the perspective of support recipients and/or trained coders rather than support providers. The goal of this study was to test a self-report scale measuring support providers’ perceptions of their own VPC communicated during interactions. This manuscript thus outlines four studies detailing the construction and evaluation of the Provider Expressions of Verbal Person-Centeredness (PE-VPC) scale, along with its limitations and research practicality.