Conceptualizing how couples talk about cancer.

Scholarship on couple communication about cancer employs variable conceptualizations of communication, and common measurement strategies make questionable assumptions about communication. This study provides a descriptive foundation for a multiple-topic, multidimensional approach to studying couple talk about cancer. Based on interviews with persons treated for cancer in the last 5 years and partners, we identified 16 topics and 5 dimensions of talk. "Talk about cancer" covers a broad range of issues. The frequency, openness, difficulty, and focus of talk vary considerably for different topics and can change over time or differ between partners. Disagreements were rare but highly salient, and satisfaction with talk tended to be high. These findings suggest we move away from abstract, general measures of couple communication and that we develop descriptive advice for couples, rather than simply prescribing "be open."