Peer support for women with breast cancer: the role of empathy and self-disclosure

✍ Scribed by Nancy Pistrang; Wendy Solomons; Chris Barker

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1999
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 237 KB
• Volume: 9
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1052-9284
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1099-1298(199905/06)9:3<217::aid-casp509>3.0.co;2-5

✦ Synopsis

This study examined how women with breast cancer perceived dierent styles of peer helping. Forty recently diagnosed breast cancer patients evaluated three audiotaped conversations between a breast cancer patient and an (ex-patient) volunteer helper; the conversations diered in terms of the empathy and self-disclosure oered by the helper. The ®ndings supported the ®rst hypothesis, that a helping style involving high self-disclosure would be positively evaluated only in the presence of high empathy. However, the ®ndings did not support the second hypothesis, that in conversations where high empathy is present, a helping style involving high self-disclosure would be evaluated more positively than one involving low self-disclosure. Qualitative data suggested that the helper's ability to listen to the patient and the helper's appropriate sharing of her own experience of breast cancer were both perceived as important components of eective helping. Implications for the training and practice of volunteer helpers are discussed.