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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Psycho-Oncology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1572569
This article is part of the Research TopicSpirituality and Religion: Implications for Mental HealthView all 47 articles
Understanding the Marital Self-disclosure Experience During Chemotherapy for Gastric Cancer: A Qualitative Study
Provisionally accepted- 11Department of Nursing Science, Faculty of Medicine, Universiti Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
- 2Editorial Office of International Journal of Nursing Sciences, Chinese Nursing Journals Publishing House Co., Ltd., Beijing, China
- 3Jingjiang People's Hospital Affiliated to Yang zhou University, Taizhou City, Jiangsu Province, China, Taizhou, China
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Objective: This study explores the experiences of Chinese gastric cancer patients and their spouses in implementing marital self-disclosure and examines the barriers and facilitators to the acceptance of marital self-disclosure among gastric cancer patients.The study aims to assist nurses in developing effective communication strategies for patients and their spouses, thus promoting their psychological well-being.The study employed purposive sampling with a maximum variation approach to select participants. From January to June 2024, 18 pairs of gastric cancer patients and their spouse caregivers, who were hospitalized in the oncology department of a tertiary hospital in Jingjiang, Jiangsu Province, participated in semi-structured face-to-face interviews. Data was transcribed within 24 hours after each interview, supported by field notes. Directed content analysis was applied to qualitative content analysis.Results: Traditional content analysis revealed five overarching themes and 15 sub-themes derived from the experiences of gastric cancer patients and their spouses during chemotherapy. The five themes identified were: 1) Perception of marital self-disclosure, 2) The Influence of marital self-disclosure on Couples' Well-Being, 3) Addressing Concerns about marital self-disclosure, 4) Factors Facilitating marital self-disclosure, and 5) The Obstacles to marital self-disclosure.: Nurses should recognize the importance of communication between spouses during chemotherapy for gastric cancer patients. Positive interventions should be adopted to alleviate one-sided, conflictual communication and avoidance behaviors. Nurses should focus on personalized communication issues, identify barriers to disclosure promptly, and provide tailored care. Furthermore, patient case management should be emphasized to facilitate the development of more effective communication strategies.
Keywords: couple, Marital Self-disclosure, gastric cancer, qualitative research, Spouse 1. Introduction
Received: 07 Feb 2025; Accepted: 15 Apr 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Zhou, Che, Chong, Zhao, Hou and Zhao. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Min Zhao, Jingjiang People's Hospital Affiliated to Yang zhou University, Taizhou City, Jiangsu Province, China, Taizhou, China
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.