Spousal Support, Emotional Disclosure, and Adjustment to Head and Neck Cancer

描述（由申请人提供）：巴德尔博士的长期目标是发展一个多方法的研究项目，研究应对癌症的夫妇的心理、社会和身体功能。K07奖项将使Badr博士能够通过提供夫妻交互协议、编码技术和二元数据分析的设计和实现方面的培训，向这一目标迈出必要的第一步。具体而言，培训计划包括：(1)正式课程作业；(2)定期获得赞助商和合作者的指导；（三）参加研讨会和全国性会议；(4)专家辅导；(5)指导研究；(6)临床实践。Badr博士的博士后培训，她的指导团队的专业知识，以及m.d. Anderson的研究环境相结合，将有助于拟议研究的成功实施。本研究计划整合婚姻及心理肿瘤学文献，独立实施研究配偶沟通对头颈癌（HNC）患者及其配偶认知加工、关系满意度及生活质量的影响。具体目的是：(1)使用自我报告和观察方法，研究夫妻沟通方式（例如，患者和伴侣的披露、患者和伴侣对癌症相关问题的隐瞒、伴侣对患者披露的积极和消极情感反应）与患者和伴侣认知加工之间的关系；(2)采用自我报告和观察的方法，研究治疗开始时夫妻之间的沟通方式（如患者和伴侣的披露、患者和伴侣对癌症相关问题的隐瞒、伴侣对患者披露的积极和消极情感反应）与治疗后4个月患者和配偶的心理功能（如痛苦）和总体生活质量之间的关系；(3)研究HNC放射治疗过程中患者症状窘迫、患者信息披露和患者认知加工之间的关系。该应用程序解决了国家癌症研究所继续致力于发展倡议，以了解癌症对家庭的影响，并且在其多方法方法中是独一无二的。总的来说，这项研究的结果将使我们能够确定HNC患者适应和不适应的配偶互动模式，为HNC患者及其伴侣提供未来社会心理干预的潜在目标。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Dr. Badr's long-term goal is to develop a multi-method research program to study psychological, social, and physical functioning in couples coping with cancer. The K07 award will enable Dr. Badr to take the necessary first steps toward this goal by providing training in the design and implementation of couples' interaction protocols, coding techniques, and the analysis of dyadic data. Specifically, the training plan includes: (1) formal course work; (2) regular mentoring from sponsors and collaborators; (3) participation in seminars and national conferences; (4) tutorials by experts; (5) mentored research; and (6) clinical practice. The combination of Dr. Badr's post-doctoral training, the expertise of her mentoring team, and the research environment of M. D. Anderson will facilitate the successful implementation of the proposed study. This research plan is devoted to the implementation of an independent project that integrates the marital and psycho-oncology literatures to study the effects of spousal communication on cognitive processing, relationship satisfaction, and quality of life (QOL) in patients with head and neck cancer (HNC) and their spouses. Specific aims are to: (1) examine associations between couples' communication styles (e.g., patient and partner disclosure, patient and partner holding back of cancer-related concerns, partner positive and negative affective responses to patient disclosure) and patient and partner cognitive processing, using self report and observational methods; (2) examine associations between couples' communication styles (e.g., patient and partner disclosure, patient and partner holding back of cancer-related concerns, partner positive and negative affective responses to patient disclosure) at the initiation of treatment and patient and spouse psychological functioning (e.g., distress) and general QOL 4 months after treatment, using self-report and observational methods; and, (3) to examine associations between patient symptom distress, patient disclosure, and patient cognitive processing over the course of radiation treatment for HNC. This application addresses the National Cancer Institute's continuing commitment to developing initiatives to understand the impact of cancer on the family, and is unique in its multi-method approach. Collectively, the outcomes of this study will allow us to identify adaptive and maladaptive spousal interaction patterns in HNC, providing potential targets for future psychosocial interventions for patients with HNC and their partners.