Abstract
Objectives
Young adult cancer survivors often experience altered social relationships which may be a result of social support networks not knowing how to effectively provide the support young adults need. This study aimed to identify and describe themes of young adults’ support preferences when engaging in cancer-related conversations and examine whether psychological distress is associated with support-related preferences.
Methods
Young adult survivors (Mage=35.12, N = 59) completed validated self-report measures of depression, cancer-related stress, social isolation, and two open-ended questions on types of preferred support.
Results
Listening (81.4%) was most commonly preferred; showing pity/worry (33.9%) was most undesired. Other types of preferred support included empathy, validation, encouragement (42.4%), and honest conversation (23.7%); common types of undesirable support included being uninterested and changing the subject (32.3%), insensitive comments and questions (25.4%), and negative stories/personal comparisons (23.7%). Greater depressive symptoms (OR = 1.21, p = .05) were associated with a preference for honest conversations whereas lower depressive symptoms (OR = 0.83, p = 0.05) and greater cancer-related stress (OR = 1.07, p = .02) were associated with a preference for conversations that did not contain advice. Lastly, lower perceived social isolation (OR = 0.88, p = .05) was associated with a preference for conversations that were not minimizing and that did not contain expressions of pity/worry.
Conclusions
Study findings can inform communication interventions and educate support networks about types of support young adults prefer when discussing cancer-related concerns.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank the Army of Women, GRYT Health, Lacuna Loft, and the Young Survival Coalition for their assistance in recruitment.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.