“We're Going to be Survivors”: Couples' Identity Challenges During and After Cancer Treatment

Abstract

Previous research has demonstrated identity challenges that people with cancer experience. Most of this research focuses solely on patients' experiences of identity during illness. The current study is distinct from the extant literature in two ways. First, it examines identity negotiations both during and after treatment. Cancer survivorship after successful treatment is a unique context in which to study identity because cancer is out of the body, yet identity challenges may persist and change for survivors and partners. Second, whereas most research on cancer and identity has focused on patients (and some has examined partners), the current study examines participants' sense of joint couple identity. Taking a rhetorical/normative approach to understanding couples' identity renegotiation, the current study included one-on-one interviews with 35 cancer survivors and 25 partners. The data show that patients and partners experience couple identity challenges throughout treatment and survivorship. These findings have implications for how we conceptualize identity and illness within couples and for understanding the identity negotiations between spouses during cancer treatment and survivorship.

Keywords:

• Couples
• Illness Identities
• Cancer Survivorship
• Couple Identity
• Normative Approach

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Laura E. Miller

Laura E. Miller is in the School of Communication Studies at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville

John P. Caughlin

John P. Caughlin is in the Department of Communication at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign