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

描述(申请人提供)：Badr博士的长期目标是开发一个多方法研究计划，以研究患有癌症的夫妇的心理、社会和身体功能。K07奖将使巴德尔博士能够通过提供设计和实施夫妻互动协议、编码技术和分析二元数据的培训，为实现这一目标迈出必要的第一步。具体而言，培训计划包括：(1)正式课程工作；(2)赞助商和合作者的定期指导；(3)参加研讨会和国家会议；(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，将促进拟议研究的成功实施。这项研究计划致力于实施一个独立的项目，整合婚姻和心理肿瘤学文献，研究配偶沟通对头颈癌患者及其配偶的认知加工、关系满意度和生活质量(QOL)的影响。具体目的是：(1)使用自我报告和观察法，考察夫妻沟通方式(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的情感反应)与患者和伴侣认知过程之间的关系；(2)使用自我报告和观察法，检查治疗开始时夫妇之间的沟通方式(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的情感反应)与患者和配偶的心理功能(例如，痛苦)和治疗后4个月的一般生活质量之间的关系；以及(3)在HNC放射治疗过程中，检查患者症状痛苦、患者披露和患者认知处理之间的关系。这一应用解决了国家癌症研究所继续致力于开发了解癌症对家庭的影响的倡议的问题，并在其多方法方法方面是独一无二的。总而言之，这项研究的结果将使我们能够确定HNC的适应性和非适应性配偶互动模式，为HNC患者及其伴侣未来的心理社会干预提供潜在的目标。

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.