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Emotion work: disclosing cancer

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Abstract

Introduction

Breast cancer remains one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality for all women in the US. Current research has focused on the psychological relationship and not the sociological relationship between emotions and the experience of breast cancer survivors. This paper focuses on the emotion work involved in self-disclosing a breast cancer diagnosis in a racially or ethnically diverse population.

Methods

The participants (n = 176) selected for this study were African American, Asian American, Latina, and Caucasian women who had been diagnosed with stages 0, I, or II breast cancer within the past 4 years. They completed an in-depth qualitative interview on self-disclosure and social support.

Findings

The results indicate self-disclosing was done at a time when important decisions about treatment needed to be made. Different strategies for disclosure were used, all of which entailed emotion work. Respondents talked about the various elements of emotion work in the disclosure process including: managing others’ worry, protecting and soothing others, and educating and instructing others. For many respondents, disclosure without calculating emotional management meant opening up to others which meant support and an increase in emotional resources.

Conclusions

The findings in this paper have implications for women with breast cancer and demonstrate the need for women to be involved in honest disclosure and less emotional management of others’ feelings. There is also a need for education about the nature of the cancer experience among people who are not well educated about the treatment and consequences of cancer. This need may be even stronger among racial and ethnic minorities.

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by a Research Infrastructure in Minority Institutions (RIMI) grant 5 P20 MD000544-02 from the National Center for Minority Health and Health Disparities, National Institutes of Health, to San Francisco State University. The authors would like to acknowledge the help of our research assistants: Yaffa Alter, Heather Law, Erin McCoy, Ana Freire, Mariaelena Gonzalez, Regina Lagman, Mabel Lam, Beverly Lynn, Sann Situ, Chris Van Onselen, Jacqueline Bishop, Shelley Volz, Ivy Wong, Gloria Boehm, Tina Chan, Julie Armin, Ann Gilliard, Qiu Chen, Sachiko Reed, Jonathan Lee, and Laureen Hom. The authors would also like to thank colleagues Jessica Fields, Allen LeBlanc and Barbara Ustanko for providing feedback on earlier drafts of this paper. The collection of cancer incidence data used in this study was supported by the California Department of Public Health as part of the statewide cancer reporting program mandated by California Health and Safety Code Section 103885; the National Cancer Institute’s Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results Program under contract N01-PC-35136 awarded to the Northern California Cancer Center, contract N01-PC-35139 awarded to the University of Southern California, and contract N02-PC-15105 awarded to the Public Health Institute; and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Program of Cancer Registries, under agreement #U55/CCR921930-02 awarded to the Public Health Institute. The ideas and opinions expressed herein are those of the author(s) and endorsement by the State of California, Department of Public Health the National Cancer Institute, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or their Contractors and Subcontractors is not intended nor should be inferred.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Cancer Disparities Research Group, San Francisco State University, 1600 Holloway, EP 103, San Francisco, CA, 94132, USA

    Grace J. Yoo & Ellen G. Levine

  2. University of Denver, Denver, CO, USA

    Caryn Aviv

  3. Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of California, San Francisco, CA, USA

    Cheryl Ewing & Alfred Au

Authors
  1. Grace J. Yoo
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  2. Caryn Aviv
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  3. Ellen G. Levine
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  4. Cheryl Ewing
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  5. Alfred Au
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Grace J. Yoo.

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Yoo, G.J., Aviv, C., Levine, E.G. et al. Emotion work: disclosing cancer. Support Care Cancer 18, 205–215 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00520-009-0646-y

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