Examination of need for affect of breast cancer women and their spouses in the context of gender

The aim of this study is to examine and in-depth analyze the need for affect of breast cancer women and their spouses in the context of gender with a qualitative design and phenomenological approach. In the study, 31 couples were interviewed. Research data were collected through in-depth interviews using a semi-structured interview form. For data analysis, the MAXQDA 2020 program was used. Content and descriptive analysis were used in the research. The research has two main themes. Accordingly, the first main theme is "factors effecting need for affects", and the second is "need for affect and gender." The main theme of contexts effecting need for affect has three sub-themes categorized as pre-cancer psychosocial life, disease process and effects of the disease. The main theme of need for affect and gender, on the other hand, has four sub-themes: feelings and coping of breast cancer women and their spouses, sharing of emotions, body image, sexuality and gender, and the effect of the environment on emotions. Accordingly, the study has two main themes and seven sub-themes in total. When the main theme of the study, the factors affecting need for affect, was evaluated, the psychosocial lives of the participants before the diagnosis of cancer, the disease process and how the effects of the disease affected their emotions and need for affects after the diagnosis of breast cancer were included, taking into account the gender approach. Accordingly, it was determined that women shared more about their marital life before breast cancer and expressed more problems and conflicts about their spouses. Marriage is one of the most stressful life events in women's lives. There are female participants who attribute breast cancer to their husband's attitudes and behaviors during the marriage process. During the disease process, especially the way of receiving bad news had an impact on women's feelings and affected the treatment process. Being diagnosed with breast cancer has affected the family life of women and men the most, causing feelings to come to the forefront especially in marriage life and changing the perspectives of spouses towards each other. While men's continuing to make a living at home causes them to experience more economic effects, the effects women experience in family relationships, their questioning of their roles as wives and mothers overlapped with the roles, reactions and emotions expected from women and men in the context of gender. In the second main theme of the study, the need for affect and gender, the emotions of the participants were analyzed to not deepen them. The results revealed that the need for affect is effected by the shape, content, and gender of the emotions. Although they experienced common emotions, the amount of women and men expressing their emotions and the content of their emotions varied. Feelings of fear, anxiety, uncertainty, guilt and sadness were frequently encountered in the study. For women, it has been seen that the focus of their feelings is usually the future of their children and death. It has been noticed that although women have a greater variety of emotions, they are more close to their emotions, while men tend to avoid their emotions more. This showed that women's emotional needs were higher than men's. It has been determined that women and men show an avoidant approach to the sharing of emotions, and this situation deviates from general perceptions about emotions and gender. However, it has been observed that women experience the effects of breast cancer on body image, sexuality and roles more, their emotions are more diverse and their emotional needs increase. The social environment adversely affected the emotional needs of male and female participants, and the resulting emotions caused avoidance and alienation from society. However, despite this, it was seen that women were more satisfied with their social relationships despite the difficult illness process, they benefited more from their emotions when coping with their negative emotions, they were more effective in coping with their emotions, and this situation showed common features with emotion-based evaluations of gender.