RESUMEN
Grounded in communicated narrative sense-making (CNSM) theory and communication theory of resilience (CTR), the current study investigated how women narratively constructed resilience surrounding pregnancy during the COVID-19 pandemic. Given the adverse effects of stress on pregnant individuals and their babies, it is important to understand the triggers and process of resilience in this context. We interviewed 21 cisgender women who were pregnant during the COVID-19 pandemic to solicit their stories of stress and resilience. Findings revealed that pregnant women managed structural, informational, and interpersonal stressors unique to the COVID-19 pandemic. They engaged in re-storying to reconcile the gap between their expected pregnancy, fueled by the U.S. master narrative of pregnancy and birth, and their lived pregnancy during a pandemic. Participants demonstrated narrative resilience through reconnecting, reframing, and recentering. These findings advance theorizing in communicated resilience by centering CNSM as the sense-making process of enacting resilience and recognizing the importance and burden of resilience during pregnancy. Practical applications are explored such as contributing to narrative-informed programming, interventions, and education efforts regarding future health crises.
Asunto(s)
COVID-19 , Efectos Colaterales y Reacciones Adversas Relacionados con Medicamentos , Resiliencia Psicológica , Embarazo , Lactante , Femenino , Humanos , COVID-19/epidemiología , Pandemias , NarraciónRESUMEN
Miscarriage occurs in roughly one in five pregnancies in the United States. Although it is largely considered a "women's issue," non-miscarrying spouses also endure the mental and relational health effects of the loss. Drawing on communicated narrative sense-making (CNSM) theory, we interviewed heterosexual, cisgender, mostly white, married men (n = 45) to solicit their stories of their spouse's miscarriage. Six types of memorable messages (i.e., messages that affect the values, behaviors and/or beliefs of the receiver) from social network members emerged - have faith, brush it off, this (pain) is your fault, silence, I'm so sorry, and this happens a lot. These messages illuminate the importance of context in memorable message meaning-making; highlight the complexity of "message gaps" in narratively processing difficulty; and uncover ethical issues with attending to men's experiences with miscarriage. We explore how these findings inform memorable messages theorizing and research.
Asunto(s)
Aborto Espontáneo , Masculino , Embarazo , Humanos , Femenino , Estados Unidos , Hombres , Narración , Heterosexualidad , EspososRESUMEN
With approximately 20 % of pregnancies ending in loss, miscarriage is a relatively common and stressful occurrence. Because romantic partners' coping efforts are intimately connected, the way one partner copes with the other's miscarriage has important implications for individual and relational well-being. Grounded in the communicated sense-making (CSM) model, the current study investigated how cis-gender men in heterosexual marriages (n = 45) communicatively constructed the meaning of their wife's miscarriage through metaphors. Analysis of interview data revealed two supra-themes-metaphors of miscarriage and metaphors of men's role as a husband. Metaphors of lost gift, cataclysm, death of a loved one, emptiness, and chaotic movement animated husbands' CSM about their wife's miscarriage. Men drew upon discourses of masculinity to make sense of their role as a husband in the miscarriage process as a rock, guard, repair man, and secondary character. We explore these findings in light of the master narrative of birth and propose an expansion of the CSM model to include metaphors as a key CSM device.
Asunto(s)
Aborto Espontáneo , Hombres , Metáfora , Aborto Espontáneo/psicología , Femenino , Humanos , Masculino , Hombres/psicología , Modelos Psicológicos , EmbarazoRESUMEN
Grounded in communicated sense-making (CSM) theorizing, we investigated communicated perspective-taking (CPT; i.e., conversational partners' attendance to and confirmation of each other's views) in association with individual and relational well-being in married couples who had miscarried (n = 183; N = 366). Actor-partner interdependence modeling revealed husbands' perceptions of wives' CPT were positively related to husbands' positive affect about the miscarriage and both spouses' relational satisfaction, as well as negatively associated with wives' positive affect. Wives' perceptions of husbands' CPT related positively to their own relational satisfaction and negatively to husbands' negative affect. Analyses revealed identification as a parent to the miscarried child (i.e., "parenting role salience") positively moderated the relationship between CPT and relational satisfaction. Implications for advancing CSM theorizing in health contexts and practical applications are explored.
Asunto(s)
Aborto Espontáneo/psicología , Comunicación , Relaciones Interpersonales , Responsabilidad Parental/psicología , Esposos/psicología , Adulto , Padre/psicología , Femenino , Humanos , Masculino , Modelos Psicológicos , Madres/psicología , EmbarazoRESUMEN
Doulas-or designated women experienced in childbirth who provide support to a birthing mother-have been shown to improve mothers' medical outcomes, but they are relatively underused in U.S. births. We assert that doulas are rarely used, in part, because it is difficult to situate them within the contemporary U.S. master birth narrative that places family and medical staff as expected characters in the birth story. This qualitative study uses narrative theorizing to describe the communicatively situated position of doulas in light of the dominant U.S. master birth narrative. Through an analysis of interviews and focus groups with mothers, expectant parents, doulas, and medical staff (n = 52) at a community hospital, we explain how individuals communicatively located the doula as a character who occupied a liminal space that is (a) between borders, (b) crossing borders, and (c) outside borders. Although doulas' liminal location enables individuals to creatively explain and promote doulas to important publics, doulas' conceptual ambiguity in the birth narrative can also be constraining. We conclude with theoretical and practical implications.
Asunto(s)
Comunicación , Doulas/estadística & datos numéricos , Madres/psicología , Narración , Parto/psicología , Adulto , Doulas/psicología , Femenino , Humanos , Entrevistas como Asunto , Grupo de Atención al Paciente/estadística & datos numéricos , Embarazo , Investigación Cualitativa , Estados UnidosRESUMEN
The overarching goal of the current study was to determine the impact of talking interpersonally over time on emerging adults' individual and relational health. Using an expressive writing study design (see Frattaroli, 2006), we assessed the degree to which psychological health improved over time for college students who told and listened to stories about friends' current difficulties in comparison with tellers in control conditions. We also investigated the effects on tellers' and listeners' perceptions of each other's communication competence, communicated perspective-taking, and the degree to which each threatened the other's face during the interaction over time to better understand the interpersonal communication complexities associated with talking about difficulty over time. After completing prestudy questionnaires, 49 friend pairs engaged in three interpersonal interactions over the course of 1 week wherein one talked about and one listened to a story of difficulty (treatment) or daily events (control). All participants completed a poststudy questionnaire 3 weeks later. Tellers' negative affect decreased over time for participants exposed to the treatment group, although life satisfaction increased and positive affect decreased across time for participants regardless of condition. Perceptions of friends' communication abilities decreased significantly over time for tellers. The current study contributes to the literature on expressive writing and social support by shedding light on the interpersonal implications of talking about difficulty, the often-overlooked effects of disclosure on listeners, and the health effects of talking about problems on college students' health.