Section on Behavioral Oncology, The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
Hunter College and The Graduate Center, City University of New York, New York, NY, USA.
J Psychosoc Oncol. 2022;40(4):457-472. doi: 10.1080/07347332.2021.1914271. Epub 2021 Apr 27.
Young adult cancer survivors often experience altered social relationships which may be a result of social support networks not knowing how to effectively provide the support young adults need. This study aimed to identify and describe themes of young adults' support preferences when engaging in cancer-related conversations and examine whether psychological distress is associated with support-related preferences.
Young adult survivors (=35.12, = 59) completed validated self-report measures of depression, cancer-related stress, social isolation, and two open-ended questions on types of preferred support.
Listening (81.4%) was most commonly preferred; showing pity/worry (33.9%) was most undesired. Other types of preferred support included empathy, validation, encouragement (42.4%), and honest conversation (23.7%); common types of undesirable support included being uninterested and changing the subject (32.3%), insensitive comments and questions (25.4%), and negative stories/personal comparisons (23.7%). Greater depressive symptoms (OR = 1.21, = .05) were associated with a preference for honest conversations whereas lower depressive symptoms (OR = 0.83, = 0.05) and greater cancer-related stress (OR = 1.07, = .02) were associated with a preference for conversations that did not contain advice. Lastly, lower perceived social isolation (OR = 0.88, = .05) was associated with a preference for conversations that were not minimizing and that did not contain expressions of pity/worry.
Study findings can inform communication interventions and educate support networks about types of support young adults prefer when discussing cancer-related concerns.
年轻的癌症幸存者经常经历社交关系的改变，这可能是由于社交支持网络不知道如何有效地提供年轻人需要的支持。本研究旨在确定和描述年轻人在参与癌症相关对话时的支持偏好主题，并探讨心理困扰是否与支持相关偏好有关。
年轻的成年幸存者（=35.12，=59）完成了抑郁、癌症相关压力、社交孤立和两个关于首选支持类型的开放性问题的验证性自我报告测量。
倾听（81.4%）是最常见的首选；表示同情/担忧（33.9%）是最不受欢迎的。其他类型的首选支持包括同理心、验证、鼓励（42.4%）和坦诚的对话（23.7%）；常见的不受欢迎的支持类型包括不感兴趣和改变话题（32.3%）、不敏感的评论和问题（25.4%）以及负面的故事/个人比较（23.7%）。更多的抑郁症状（OR=1.21，=0.05）与对坦诚对话的偏好相关，而较少的抑郁症状（OR=0.83，=0.05）和更多的癌症相关压力（OR=1.07，=0.02）与不包含建议的对话偏好相关。最后，较低的感知社交孤立（OR=0.88，=0.05）与不最小化和不包含同情/担忧表达的对话偏好相关。
研究结果可以为沟通干预措施提供信息，并为支持网络提供有关年轻人在讨论癌症相关问题时偏好的支持类型的教育。
