TY - JOUR
T1 - Being open without talking about it
T2 - A rhetorical/normative approach to understanding topic avoidance in families after a lung cancer diagnosis
AU - Caughlin, John P.
AU - Mikucki-Enyart, Sylvia L.
AU - Middleton, Ashley V.
AU - Stone, Anne M.
AU - Brown, Laura E.
N1 - Funding Information:
John P. Caughlin (PhD, 1997, University of Texas at Austin) is an Associate Professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Sylvia L. Mikucki-Enyart (MS, 2007, Illinois State University) and Ashley V. Middleton (MA, 2008, University of Texas at Austin) are graduate students at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Anne M. Stone (PhD, 2010, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) is an Assistant Professor at Portland State University. Laura E. Brown (MA, 2010, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) is a graduate student at the University of Texas at Austin. The authors are grateful for support for this research from the Arnold O. Beckman Research Award, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Campus Research Board. The authors would like to thank Nicole Lavoie and Kristen L. Satterlee for their assistance with interviewing and Pamara Chang, Danielle Ghess, Mike Golaszewski, and Kimberly Pusateri for their assistance with transcription and coding. Correspondence to: John Caughlin, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Department of Communication, 1207 W. Oregon, Urbana, IL 61801, USA. Tel: (217) 333-4340; Fax: (217) 244-1598; E-mail: caughlin@illinois.edu
Copyright:
Copyright 2012 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2011/12
Y1 - 2011/12
N2 - The present study uses a rhetorical/normative perspective to examine families' communication and coping in response to a parent's diagnosis of, and eventual death from, lung cancer. Through in-depth, semistructured interviews with 35 adult children, we identified two broad areas of communicative avoidance (avoiding information and avoiding emotion) and three general ways of managing avoidance and openness (denial, segmentation, and being open while avoiding). The interviews suggested that denial was a particularly dissatisfying means of managing competing goals, whereas being open while avoiding appeared to be functional for family members. The discussion focuses on our understanding of reasons why people avoid in this context, implications for rhetorical/normative approaches and theories of information management, and practical implications of the current findings.
AB - The present study uses a rhetorical/normative perspective to examine families' communication and coping in response to a parent's diagnosis of, and eventual death from, lung cancer. Through in-depth, semistructured interviews with 35 adult children, we identified two broad areas of communicative avoidance (avoiding information and avoiding emotion) and three general ways of managing avoidance and openness (denial, segmentation, and being open while avoiding). The interviews suggested that denial was a particularly dissatisfying means of managing competing goals, whereas being open while avoiding appeared to be functional for family members. The discussion focuses on our understanding of reasons why people avoid in this context, implications for rhetorical/normative approaches and theories of information management, and practical implications of the current findings.
KW - Coping
KW - Lung cancer
KW - Multiple goals
KW - Normative approach
KW - Topic avoidance
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U2 - 10.1080/03637751.2011.618141
DO - 10.1080/03637751.2011.618141
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84855772423
SN - 0363-7751
VL - 78
SP - 409
EP - 436
JO - Communication Monographs
JF - Communication Monographs
IS - 4
ER -