Mark A. Generous

Exploring Children/Adolescents’ Final Conversations with Dying Family Members

In the current study, the authors expanded on a program of qualitative inquiry exploring final conversations (FCs) to the understudied population of children/adolescents. Participants were 61 children/adolescents aged 5–18, who participated in semi-structured interviews regarding their FCs with a dying family member. Inductive coding analysis led the authors to discover four overarching themes of children/adolescents’ FCs messages, in order of descending prominence, are: everyday communication, messages of love, messages of individual identity, and messages related to religion/spirituality. The authors applied Functional Theory to further delineate how participants used, and continue to use, the messages from each theme within their FCs. Discussion of results, including limitations and directions for further research, is outlined.

Advice From Children and Adolescents on Final Conversations With Dying Loved Ones

To understand more about final conversations (communication between loved ones from the point of terminal diagnosis until death), 49 children/adolescents provided final conversation advice for other youth and for the dying person. Advice for fellow youth included (a) confirming the relationship with the dying person, (b) remaining positive throughout the death process, and (c) using external support networks. Advice for the dying person included (a) confirming the relationship with the youth, (b) engaging in open, honest communication with youth, and (c) confirming the identities of the youth. The main implication is that youth should be included in the death process.

The Challenges of Final Conversations: Dialectical Tensions During End-of-Life Family Communication

This study examines how participants recall the challenges they encountered during final conversations they had with a family member who has since died. We use relational dialectics as a theoretical framework to interpret participants’ responses. The dialectical tensions evident in these conversations are influenced primarily by a chronemic pressure: the impending death. The overarching tensions discovered were acceptance–denial and openness–closedness (including expression of emotion–concealment of emotion). Practical and theoretical implications are discussed.

When an Instructor Swears in Class: Functions and Targets of Instructor Swearing from College Students’ Retrospective Accounts

Via a communication competence lens, students’ accounts of instructor swearing were inductively analyzed to understand students’ perceptions of the swear words function and target. Coding revealed seven functions of teacher swearing: emphasize/elaborate, accommodate students, be humorous, show frustration, gain attention, instructor personality/disposition, and accidental. Six targets of teacher swearing were also found: swearing directed toward course content, noncourse content, the self (instructor), students, course assignments, and job tools. Swearing directed at course content, swearing used to emphasize/elaborate, to gain attention, and to be humorous were perceived as more appropriate than other categories. Classroom implications and instructor recommendations are offered.

Exploring College Students’ Emotional Responses to Instructor Swearing

The current study sought to expand the scant literature on instructor swearing by investigating how students felt personally and toward their instructor after experiencing swearing in the classroom. Inductive analytic techniques revealed that students reported the following personal feelings after recalling a specific swearing incident: absence of emotion, pleasurable and functional, displeasure, and aroused. Students reported the following feelings toward the instructor after a swearing incident: feelings unchanged, positive change in affect (respectful and accessible), and negative change in affect (inappropriate and unprofessional). Emotional Response Theory (ERT) frames results—in particular, students’ responses illustrate the emotions outlined in ERT, including pleasure/displeasure, dominance/submissiveness, and arousal/nonarousal (Mottet, Frymier, & Beebe, 2006). Additionally, other emotional responses not originally conceptualized within ERT were found. Implications for instructional communication theory and future research directions are discussed.

Final Conversations: Overview and Practical Implications for Patients, Families, and Healthcare Workers

The current paper presents a summary of a 12-year body of research on final conversations, which will be useful for healthcare providers who work with patients and family nearing the end-of-life, as well as for patients and their family members. Final conversations encompass any and all conversations that occur between individuals with a terminal diagnosis and their family members (all participants are aware that their loved one is in the midst of the death journey). Final conversations take the family member’s perspective and highlights what are their memorable messages with the terminally ill loved one. In this paper the authors highlight the message themes present at the end-of-life for both adults and children, the functions each message theme serves for family members, and lastly, the communicative challenges of final conversations. Additionally, the authors discuss the current nature and future of final conversations research, with special attention paid to practical implications for healthcare providers, patients, and family members; also, scholarly challenges and future research endeavors are explored.