Thesis (M.S.)--Wisconsin. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 74-77).

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1982. / Typescript. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 71-75).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Memorial University of Newfoundland, 2004. / Bibliography: leaves 272-291.

Thesis (M.Soc.Sc.)--University of Hong Kong, 2002. / Also available in print.

Thesis (doctoral)--Lund University, 1998. / Added t.p. with thesis statement inserted.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2007. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

The purpose of this cross-sectional ethnography was to develop theory and knowledge about how women in Canada live with breast cancer. Cross-sectional ethnography describes a number of individuals from a cross-section of a culture or subculture for a unit of study (Boyle, 1994). A cross-section of women with breast cancer were studied, not an interacting group of women with breast cancer (Werner & Schoepfle, 1987 ). As a result of counselling women with breast cancer over a period of two years, I have learned that despite the differing treatment protocols and differing kinds and stages of breast cancer, women with breast cancer are members integrated into a subculture which has many common words, phrases, images, and themes. Thirteen women with breast cancer form the unit of study for this research. Cancer is a complex array of diseases which develop in 25% of the population; one woman in nine is diagnosed with breast cancer in Canada (Holland, 1989), and one woman in three with breast cancer will die of metastases (Elliott, Rahimi, Tremblay, Shenoy, Rossiter, & Saulnier, 1997). The incidence of breast cancer is increasing annually (O’Donnell, Coughlin, & LeMarbre, 1992); breast cancer is the most frequent cancer in women and is the leading cause of death in women between the ages of 35 and 55 (Andrulis, 1997). Secondary goals of this research were to have the emergent knowledge published to provide increased choices and actions for those newly diagnosed with breast cancer, and to provide data, facts and information to counsellors, professionals and others working and living with breast cancer. Psychological distress in women with breast cancer is often translated into psychopathology by those following the medical model in breast cancer treatment (Mathieson, 1991). Depression and anxiety diagnoses are predominant in women with breast cancer, with rates of depression diagnoses as high as 75% (Massie & Holland, 1989). A study by Garcia, Cristal-Luna, Li, Uai, Gonzalez, Tarmayo, Masadao, Lola, and Matumog (1997) concluded that the presence of cancer disrupts almost every aspect of an individual’s life and that depressive symptoms were experienced throughout the course of chemotherapy. Symptoms experienced by breast cancer patients are often translated by DSM IV criteria into psychiatric disorders, most often depression and anxiety (Derogatis, Abeloff, & Melisaratos, 1983). After counselling women in two cancer Clinics, I began to understand that the experience of having breast cancer imposes many stresses which are in fact, normal, given the context of the cultural stigmata and traumata which result from the diagnosis and treatment o f this disease. Women caught up in the shock of diagnosis and the invasive treatments alluded to colloquially as “slash, burn, and poison” blamed themselves. Most of all they asked: “How do other women live with breast cancer?" This study is an initial response to that question. Thirteen women who had been diagnosed with breast cancer participated in this study. A cross-sectional ethnography was the research method. Ethnographic questioning (Spradley, 1979) is used to organize and analyse data. Using the North American culture as background, and the subculture of those with breast cancer as foreground, ethnographic questioning elicited the shared contexts of 13 women’s life worlds as they described their experiences after a diagnosis of breast cancer. This ethnographic method facilitated the analysis of the women’s experiences by searching for cognitive and behavioural themes of meaning in the women’s verbal descriptions. Dominant themes which emerged and recurred through the 13 interviews were: 1) adaptation to ambiguity and stress; 2) sadness and anger; 3) fear and terror; 4) lack of support; 5) dehumanization; 6) disempowerment and trivialization; 7) shame and stigma; 8) coping; 9) minimization and denial; 10) it (cancer) changes everything; 11) the game of survival; 12) the doctor is God; and 13) metaphors, images, and other cultural symbols specific to those with a diagnosis of breast cancer. Conclusions recommend the inclusion of these and other themes in the psychotherapeutic frameworks utilized by those counselling individuals with a diagnosis of breast cancer. / Graduate

The purpose of this study was to explore the socioeconomic needs and concerns of a group of new breast cancer patients and their families with consideration of changes in roles and relationships and patient's feelings about self. The study was conducted in co-operation with the A. Maxwell Evans Clinic, a cancer treatment centre under the direction of the Cancer Control Agency of British Columbia. The scope of this study was restricted to new breast cancer patients referred to the New Patients Clinic in May, 1978 and their primary care-givers. In this study, the primary care-givers were family members most responsible for the patient's rehabilitation. The sample consisted of 16 patients and 14 primary care-givers. Two of the patients' primary care-givers were not available at the time of the interview. The sample included patients with breast cancer in Stages 1, 2, 3 and 4. One interview schedule was designed for the patient and a shorter form for the primary care-giver. An open-ended question about the patients and primary care-givers' greatest concerns were included to identify needs not covered by scheduled topics and to give respondents an opportunity to expand and priorize concerns. Socioeconomic change was defined in terms of changes in place of residence, work activities outside the home, family roles and responsibilities, relationships with family and friends, and feelings about self. The findings indicated that the area of greatest change was in family roles and relationships. Most primary care-givers were interested in talking to the interviewer about some anxieties concerning their new role as primary care-giver. Some primary care-givers also were interested in more information about how to create a rehabilitative environment for the patient. All patients were generally positive toward the Clinic. Several patients expressed a number of suggestions for improving support services and offered ideas about . the attitudes of significant others which affect the patient's sense of well-being and ability to recover. The researcher makes some recommendations for enhancing and developing supportive services for the consideration of the medical team and the specialized social services department in a cancer clinic. The recommendations include approaches to help families recognize and develop new roles to help the patient recover. / Arts, Faculty of / Social Work, School of / Graduate

In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF SCIENCE in the subject MIDWIFERY at the UNIVERSITY OF THE WITWATERSRAND / This study was conducted in order to draw a profile of the breast feeding practices of a group of White Johannesburg mothers and to ascertain whether factors such as antenatal preparation and postnatal support could be linked to breast feeding success or failure. For the purpose of this study the breast feeding experience was considered successful if the baby was breast fed for 3 months or more. An interview schedule was drawn up and 200 mothers were interviewed over an eighteen month period when they brought their babies to the Municipal Health Clinic for immunisations. the results of this survey showed that less than 50% of the sample were still breast feeding at 3 months. The profile of the successtul breast feeder that emerged was the following:- English speaking, comes from the higher social class and income bracket. has breast fed a previous baby successfully. (Abbreviation abstract) / Andrew Chakane 2019

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