When parents are confronted with something as fundamental as a cancer diagnosis for their child, it is generally assumed that sharing the emotional impact of it, in the form of talking about it with the partner, is helpful and necessary to cope as an individual and a couple. However, couple communication in the context of childhood oncology is often challenging. In this qualitative research, we aimed for a better understanding of how partners experience their couple communication during treatment of their child. Thematic coding was done on in-depth interviews with 16 parents (7 couples interviewed together and 2 mothers). We found that the circumstances of the treatment period affected couple communication. In the interviews, parents provided three main meanings to their limited talking: (a) because of the hospital and treatment context; (b) for self-care/self-protection related to the value of blocking emotions; and (c) because of each other. These findings invite us to rethink emotional closeness being equated with frequent or intense emotional communication in couples with a child who has cancer. This research, framed in a dialectic approach, emphasizes the value of both talking and not talking in the tense and challenging couple situation of dealing with a child’s cancer diagnosis and treatment. Rather than advocating for the general promotion of open communication, our study suggests the value of hesitations to talk at certain points in the process, while also taking into account the degree of marital difficulties in offering interventions aimed at improving couple communication.

中文翻译：

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“当您的孩子患有危及生命的疾病时，很难说话”：一项对孩子被诊断患有癌症的夫妇的定性研究

当父母面临像孩子的癌症诊断这样的基本问题时，通常认为以与伴侣谈论它的形式分享它的情感影响是有帮助的，也是必要的，可以作为一个个体和一个个体来应对。夫妻。然而，儿童肿瘤学背景下的夫妻沟通往往具有挑战性。在这项定性研究中，我们旨在更好地了解伴侣在治疗孩子期间如何体验他们的夫妻沟通。主题编码是在对 16 位父母（一起采访的 7 对夫妇和 2 位母亲）的深入采访中完成的。我们发现治疗期的情况影响了夫妻沟通。在访谈中，家长对他们有限的谈话提供了三个主要含义：(a) 因为医院和治疗背景；(b) 与阻断情绪的价值有关的自我照顾/自我保护；(c) 因为彼此。这些发现让我们重新思考情感上的亲近等同于与患有癌症的孩子的夫妻频繁或强烈的情感交流。这项研究以辩证法为框架，强调在处理儿童癌症诊断和治疗的紧张和具有挑战性的夫妻情况下，交谈和不交谈的价值。我们的研究并不提倡普遍促进开放式沟通，而是建议在此过程中的某些时候犹豫不决是有价值的，同时还考虑了提供旨在改善夫妻沟通的干预措施的婚姻困难程度。这些发现促使我们重新思考情感上的亲近等同于与患有癌症的孩子的夫妻频繁或强烈的情感交流。这项研究以辩证法为框架，强调在处理儿童癌症诊断和治疗的紧张和具有挑战性的夫妻情况下，说话和不说话的价值。我们的研究并不提倡普遍促进开放式沟通，而是建议在此过程中的某些时候犹豫不决是有价值的，同时还考虑了提供旨在改善夫妻沟通的干预措施的婚姻困难程度。这些发现让我们重新思考情感上的亲近等同于与患有癌症的孩子的夫妻频繁或强烈的情感交流。这项研究以辩证法为框架，强调在处理儿童癌症诊断和治疗的紧张和具有挑战性的夫妻情况下，交谈和不交谈的价值。我们的研究并不提倡普遍促进开放式沟通，而是建议在此过程中的某些时候犹豫不决是有价值的，同时还考虑了提供旨在改善夫妻沟通的干预措施的婚姻困难程度。强调在处理儿童癌症诊断和治疗的紧张和具有挑战性的夫妻情况下，说话和不说话的价值。我们的研究并不提倡普遍促进开放式沟通，而是建议在此过程中的某些时候犹豫不决是有价值的，同时还考虑了提供旨在改善夫妻沟通的干预措施的婚姻困难程度。强调在处理儿童癌症诊断和治疗的紧张和具有挑战性的夫妻情况下，说话和不说话的价值。我们的研究并不提倡普遍促进开放式沟通，而是建议在此过程中的某些时候犹豫不决是有价值的，同时还考虑了提供旨在改善夫妻沟通的干预措施的婚姻困难程度。