Being Open without Talking about It: A Rhetorical/Normative Approach to Understanding Topic Avoidance in Families after a Lung Cancer Diagnosis

Abstract

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.

Keywords:

• Coping
• Lung Cancer
• Multiple Goals
• Normative Approach
• Topic Avoidance

Acknowledgments

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.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

John P. Caughlin

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

Sylvia L. Mikucki-Enyart (MS, 2007, Illinois State University) is graduate student at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Ashley V. Middleton

Ashley V. Middleton (MA, 2008, University of Texas at Austin) is graduate student at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Anne M. Stone

Anne M. Stone (PhD, 2010, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) is an Assistant Professor at Portland State University

Laura E. Brown

Laura E. Brown (MA, 2010, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) is a graduate student at the University of Texas at Austin