ABSTRACT
This study aimed to assess the range and intensity of psychosocial concerns experienced by women with cervical cancer and their male partners. A cross-sectional survey assessed 26 couples where the woman had invasive cervical cancer stage I-IV, up to 2 years posttreatment, using a concerns questionnaire and widely used psychosocial questionnaires. Respondents indicated their concerns about the impact of the disease and treatment as well as general psychosocial impact. Women with cervical cancer and their male partners expressed equal intensities of concern regarding the illness and its treatment, rating sexuality, prognosis, and communication with the treatment team most highly in terms of current concerns. Couples where the patient had a more advanced stage of cancer expressed higher concerns than those with earlier stage disease. Although women with cervical cancer reported more fatigue and illness intrusiveness than their male partners, both experienced disruptions in relationships, intimacy, and instrumental life domains. With increased time posttreatment, concerns differed subtly between affected women and their male partners. Effective psychosocial support for cervical cancer must be provided for both the affected woman and her male partner. Support and information should address the most salient concerns of patients and partners as these evolve over significant clinical milestones.
Subject(s)
Spouses/psychology , Uterine Cervical Neoplasms/psychology , Adult , Education , Female , Happiness , Humans , Male , Marriage/psychology , Middle Aged , Neoplasm Staging , Sex Factors , Sexuality , Socioeconomic Factors , Surveys and Questionnaires , Time Factors , Uterine Cervical Neoplasms/diagnosis , Uterine Cervical Neoplasms/therapyABSTRACT
Forty-eight undergraduate women assigned an approval-seeking or approval-avoiding role disclosed significantly more to a male listener (C) than did control Ss given no particular set, with no difference found between seeking and avoiding conditions in intimacy of disclosure. But content analyses indicated that approval-seeking Ss presented themselves significantly more positively, and approval-avoiding Ss significantly more negatively than did controls. These data supported the hypothesis that disclosure may serve as an instrumental affiliative act associated with both interpersonal approach and avoidance motives. The hypothesis that simulated attraction facilitates actual attraction was supported more clearly in analyses of Ss' liking ratings of C than in Ss' ratings of C's attractiveness or desirability as a dating partner. The latter findings are discussed in terms of intimacy implications of the attraction measures used.
