The Challenges of Final Conversations: Dialectical Tensions During End-of-Life Family Communication

Abstract

This study examines how participants recall the challenges they encountered during final conversations they had with a family member who has since died. We use relational dialectics as a theoretical framework to interpret participants’ responses. The dialectical tensions evident in these conversations are influenced primarily by a chronemic pressure: the impending death. The overarching tensions discovered were acceptance–denial and openness–closedness (including expression of emotion–concealment of emotion). Practical and theoretical implications are discussed.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Maureen P. Keeley

Maureen P. Keeley, Department of Communication Studies, Texas State University.

Mark A. Generous

Mark A. Generous, Hugh Downs School of Communication, Arizona State University.