Multimedia Reporting (Kuhr-Musser)

A recent study on breast cancer support groups, by a KU professor, offers new insight on what is said in these groups.
Donna Neuner was diagnosed with breast cancer in December of 1994. A year later, she began attending Bosom Buddies, a support group for women with breast cancer. “I didn’t join for me, I joined to provide support for anyone going through the same thing as me,” said Neuner. Not only has Neuner attended this group for 12 years, she has recently become the group facilitator. “I find it a rewarding thing to do with my free time,” she said.
Support groups are often studied in medical journals and in psychological journals. University of Kansas Psychology Professor, David Holmes, studied coping in the scientific sense. “The support groups help boost leukocyte production in the brain which helps with stress,” he said. This is a psychological perspective, but not very often do scholars dip into what exactly is going on and being said in these groups.
Michael Dennis, an assistant professor in Communication Studies at KU, took a different approach. He said that this is uncharted territory. “Our goal was to examine the language, the strategies and the messages that are shown in these groups, some which aren’t always positive,” said Dennis.
To accomplish this detailed study, three KU professors, each in Communications Studies, attended The Bosom Buddies cancer support group, located in Lawrence, every week. “We got a grant from the school so that we could acquire proper cameras and transcription equipment to chart what was said and what went on,” said Dennis.
In all of 2003, the scholars attended the Monday evening sessions of the support group. They studied various aspects of communication that was occurring. Dennis’s main area of focus was something called problem integration theory. This theory consists of the probability that something can happen, and one’s evaluation of that probability. For example, relating to breast cancer, one might think of which treatment to use and how it will or will not work, and how one would cope with the results.
Dennis’s job was to track through all of the transcripts and note all instances in which a member mentioned the likelihood or probabilities of outcomes, positive or negative. His research found a significant amount of both.
Adrianne Kunkel, another researcher, looked at problem focused coping. Problem focused coping is any attempt to help someone fix a problem. She found that this theory appeared often because the veteran members of the group often helped the newer members by describing their experiences and giving advice.
Kunkel also looked at emotional focused coping, which involves sense making and positive reappraisal. Positive reappraisal is when one uses positive language to help someone see the “silver lining” in the face of trouble. “We saw positive reappraisal when one woman, who was going through chemo and lost her hair, said that the wig was rewarding because she did not have to do her hair in the morning, “said Dennis.
Dennis interestingly found an overlap between his and Kunkel’s research. “People would explain their good outcomes that had happened in their experiences, but then would end with a caveat by saying ‘but everyone is different’,” said Dennis. The “everyone is different” remark was seen as a probability statement, like Dennis observed in his research. “It’s like they didn’t want to be responsible for the guarantee, so they were saying it wasn’t necessarily true for everyone,” said Dennis.
However, these good outcomes that were shared exemplified Kunkel’s findings of emotional focused coping. “This was an interesting overlap,” said Dennis.
Another interesting finding had to do with the positive language difference between the holidays and what Dennis calls “the typical meetings.” “One would assume that there would be more positive talk during the holidays, but it was just the opposite,” said Dennis. However, he said that it makes more sense, in retrospect. He found that during “typical meetings” the group members were more positive and focused on pumping each other up, while during the holidays they were already in a good mood and did not have to speak so positively. “They also had other things on their mind like who was making Christmas cookies,” said Dennis.
Within this past week, undergraduates at KU have coded and charted the theories studied during this research, comparing which ones occurred most often and least often. “We found that the theory that most often appeared was positive evaluation, this is when someone says a positive word such as ‘good’, ‘great’, ‘better’, and so on,” said Dennis. Least common was the presence of informative avoidance. An example of this is if someone were to say “I don’t want to know”, or when someone tries to avoid the truth.
With all of his findings and data accounted for, Dennis said he is excited to share it with the support group. “ I want to get this information out there so that other scholars, and support groups can pick up on it and get better insight to what really goes on in these sessions,” said Dennis. Dennis plans on publishing the research to make it better available to those who are interested.
“Any social psychologist or researcher’s goal is to leave the subject better off than they found them,” said Dennis. “We think that we have done that with this research.”

Donna Neuner leads the "Bosom Buddies Suport Group" at the Prebyterian Manor in Lawrence. Neuner, who has lead the group for over 3 years, was pleased with Dennis' research. The group meets every monday evening.
More on Michael Dennis' research

A support group member writes down her bid for chocolate chip muffins. The silent bake sale auction raised money for "The Walk of Life" which is held in June in Lawrence, and raises money for a cancer cure.