Networking, coping, and communicating about a medical crisis: a phenomenological inquiry of transplant recipient communication

Managing multiple goals in supportive interactions: using a normative theoretical approach to explain social support as uncertainty management for organ transplant patients

In this study, we used a normative theoretical perspective to examine the relationship between uncertainty management and support in the lives of organ transplant patients. We conducted in-depth interviews with 8 pretransplant and 30 posttransplant patients, including individuals who were waiting for or had received a kidney, liver, heart, or pancreas. Interview transcripts were analyzed using a grounded theory approach, which involved two levels of thematic analysis. Participants reported that others provide assistance in various ways, and that this social support entailed a number of challenges. Participants also described several strategies for handling these support dilemmas. These findings suggest that the effectiveness of support is related to how well multiple goals (including uncertainty-related goals) are managed in the supportive interaction.

Food, culture, and family: exploring the coordinated management of meaning regarding childhood obesity

Increased rates of childhood obesity combined with more accessible information about the relationship between diet, physical activity and inactivity, and chronic diseases suggest the need for analyzing the complex process of receiving and transmitting messages related to child feeding practices. This study examined the perceptions of childhood obesity within 1 multiethnic community, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. In particular, through the use of focus groups, individuals indicated that sociocultural, familial, and official nutritional messages were most influential to their health care behaviors. The coordinated management of meaning (CMM) theory was used to gain insight into how individuals negotiate competing messages occurring at different levels of meaning. Given its focus on cultural influences (parallel to the concepts of archetypes), CMM proved especially relevant for understanding child feeding beliefs, values, attitudes, and practices in diverse ethnic populations. Implications for future health communication research that might draw from a CMM approach were identified, as well as pragmatic endeavors that focus on the development, implementation, and evaluation of culturally appropriate interventions in the prevention of childhood obesity.