Conflict Resolution Styles, Marital Intimacy and Family Functions of Breast Cancer Patients and Their Spouses

Yang-Sook Yoo; Kyung-Hye Hwang; Ok-Hee Cho

doi:10.7475/KJAN.2013.25.1.33

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Yoo, Hwang, and Cho: Conflict Resolution Styles, Marital Intimacy and Family Functions of Breast Cancer Patients and Their Spouses

Original Research

Korean J Adult Nurs 2013;25(1):33-40.

Published online: 18 February 2013

DOI: https://doi.org/10.7475/KJAN.2013.25.1.33

Conflict Resolution Styles, Marital Intimacy and Family Functions of Breast Cancer Patients and Their Spouses

Yang-Sook Yoo¹, Kyung-Hye Hwang², Ok-Hee Cho^3,

^¹College of Nursing, The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul

^²Department of Nursing, Suwon Science College, Suwon

^³College of Nursing, Jeju National University, Jeju, Korea

Corresponding author: Cho, Ok-Hee College of Nursing, Jeju National University, 102 Jejudaehak-ro, Jeju 690-756, Korea Tel: +82-64-754-3887, Fax: +82-64-702-2686, E-mail: ohcho@jejunu.ac.kr

Received 29 October 201217 December 2012 Accepted 17 February 2013

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study was to explore conflict resolution styles, marital intimacy and family functions among breast cancer patients and their spouses.

Methods

The subjects were total 126 participants. Breast cancer patients who completed chemotherapy and or radiation along with their spouses. Data were collected using questionnaires with questions about conflict resolution styles, marital intimacy and family functions.

Results

There were no differences between breast cancer patients and their spouses in verbal aggression, avoidance of conflict resolution styles and family functions. As patients reported using positive conflict resolution styles the spouse-perceived marital intimacy and family functions were higher. Those patients who perceived marital intimacy as lower they also reported more verbal aggression and avoidance. As breast cancer patients perceived family functions increasing, their spouses perception of both intimacy and family function increased.

Conclusion

As these results, it should be considered as basic data to develop family intervention programs such as positive communication and effective stress management and improving of conflict resolution, intimacy and family functions among breast cancer patients and their spouses.

Keywords: Breast neoplasms, Spouses, Conflict resolution, Relationship intimacy, Family relations

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Table 1.

General Characteristics of Subjects (N=126)

Characteristics	Categories	Patients (n=63)	Spouses (n=63)
Characteristics	Categories	n (%) or M±SD	n (%) or M±SD
Age (year)		53.7±6.9 (Range: 41~68)	57.6±7.0 (Range: 45~72)
Religion	Yes	56 (88.9)	36 (57.1)
Religion	No	7 (11.1)	27 (42.9)
Education	High school	30 (47.6)	25 (39.7)
Education	≥College	33 (52.4)	38 (60.3)
Occupation	Yes	18 (28.6)	48 (76.2)
Occupation	No	45 (71.4)	15 (23.8)
Family monthly income (10,000 won)	＜200	24 (38.1)
Family monthly income (10,000 won)	≥200	39 (61.9)
Duration of marriages (year)		27.4±10.1 (Range: 1~45)
Type of marriage	Love marriage	22 (34.9)
	Match marriage	17 (27.0)
	Mixed marriage	24 (38.1)
Number of children	1	11 (17.5)
Number of children	≥2	52 (82.5)
Cancer Stage	I	23 (36.5)
	II	29 (46.0)
	III	11 (17.5)
Post-operation period (year)		5.0±3.4 (Range: 1~13)
Menopause	Yes	52 (82.5)
Menopause	No	11 (17.5)
Adjuvant chemotherapy		49 (77.8)
Radiation therapy		22 (34.9)
Hormone therapy		33 (52.4)
Subjective health status (0~10)			5.71±1.82 (Range: 2~10)

Table 2.

Differences of Variables between Breast Cancer Patients and Their Spouses (N=126)

Variables	Possible range	Patients (n=63)	Spouses (n=63)	Paired t-test	p
Variables	Possible range	n (%) or M±SD	n (%) or M±SD	Paired t-test	p
Conflict resolution style
Verbal aggression	1~5	1.90±0.86	1.81±0.62	0.68	.498
Positive problem solving	g 1~5	2.92±0.82	3.19±0.75	-2.19	.032
Withdrawal	1~5	2.06±0.86	1.90±0.68	1.35	.183
Marital intimacy	1~4	3.11±0.51	3.13±0.46	-0.36	.717
Family function	0~10	6.5±2.2	6.5±2.1	0.18	.857
Low grade	0~3	4 (6.4)	5 (7.9)
Moderate grade	4~6	28 (44.4)	27 (42.9)
High grade	7~10	31 (49.2)	31 (49.2)

Table 3.

Correlation among Variables in Breast Cancer Patients and Their Spouses (N=126)

Variables		Patients					Spouses
Variables		1	2	3	4	5	1	2	3	4	5
Patients	1
	2	-.25
	2	(.049)
	3	3	-.36
	3	(＜.001)	(.004)
	4	-.39	.29	-.43
	4	(.002)	(.020)	(＜.001)
	5	5 -.19	.14	-.31	.46
	5	(.144)	(.272)	(.013)	(＜.001)
Spouses	1	.07	-.15	.15	-.29	-.06
	1	(.591)	(.256)	(.230)	(.020)	(.631)
	2	-.28	.24	-.19	.13	.06	-.22
	2	(.024)	(.057)	(.136)	(.296)	(.626)	(.086)
	3	.10	-.18	.30	-.34	-.19	.61	-.33
	3	(.438)	(.164)	(.019)	(.006)	(.133)	(＜.001)	(.009)
	4	-.28	.25	-.23	.53	.37	-.27	.27	-.34
	4	(.026)	(.046)	(.072)	(＜.001)	(.003)	(.035)	(.030)	(.006)
	5	-.13	.36	-.24	.44	.34	-.33	.30	-.29	.62
	5	(.294)	(.004)	(.058)	(＜.001)	(.006)	(.009)	(.016)	(.023)	(＜.001)

Values are r (p); correlations for patients are on the lower diagonal, correlations for partners are on the upper diagonal, and partial correlations (between patients and spouses) are on the diagonal.

^1. Verbal aggression;

^2. Positive problem solving;

^3. Withdrawal;

^4. Marital intimacy;

^5. Family function.

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