“It’s My Job Now, I Guess”: Biographical disruption and communication work in supporters of young adult cancer survivors

ABSTRACT

This study uses narrative interviews to describe how 25 young adult (YA) close supporters (i.e., romantic partners, siblings) experience an often invisible and uniquely burdensome biographical disruption following a young adult cancer survivor’s (YACS; i.e., 18–39) diagnosis. YA supporters reported varying levels of biographical interdependence with the YACS and family system uncertainty with other important supporters. These factors led YA romantic partners and siblings to engage in different types of communication work to negotiate and maintain primary and secondary support roles with parents and in-laws, to ensure that the YACS received helpful social support by gatekeeping (i.e., correcting, blocking) others’ support attempts, and to accommodate both their own and the YACS’s disrupted biographies.

KEYWORDS:

• Young adult cancer
• biographical disruption
• communication work
• social support

Acknowledgments

The author would like to thank Allison Scott Gordon for her feedback and mentorship. He would also like to thank Rashmi Luthra, Troy Murphy, Sara Shaunfield, Elisia Cohen, and the young adult cancer supporters who made this research possible.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributor

Nicholas T. Iannarino (PhD, University of Kentucky; MA, University of Dayton) is an Assistant Professor of Health Communication in the Department of Language, Culture, and Communication at the University of Michigan-Dearborn.

ORCID

Nicholas T. Iannarino http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1069-2173