Linguistic Content of Stories Told by Caregivers of Hematopoietic Cell Transplant Recipients

Hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) is a treatment for hematologic malignancies. The procedure poses multiple medical risks ranging from infection to graft-versus-host disease. Patients must designate a full-time informal caregiver, typically a family member. Caregivers assume multiple medical and logistical responsibilities. Distress and burden are common. Psychosocial interventions, including narrative-based interventions, may offer support for caregivers. This thesis makes use of data collected as part of a digital storytelling intervention for HCT caregivers. Participants were 6 caregivers of HCT survivors who participated in a 3-day digital storytelling workshop, culminating in the creation of a personal story about their experience as a caregiver in the form of a video with narration in their own voice. Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC, 2015) was used to characterize content of the stories. Compared to norms (base rates of word usage provided by the LIWC developers), caregivers used more first-person plural pronouns. Such use of we-talk may indicate caregiver-patient dyadic strength given other research linking we-talk to communal coping. Counter to prediction, caregivers did not differ from norms with respect to use of negative affect words or cognitive process words. They did, however, use more biological process words (to be expected given their focus on health) and more words indicative of affiliation (understandable in light of their interpersonal connection to the patient and supportive care role). Further research is needed to examine potential change in linguistic content across the HCT trajectory (from pre-transplant through long-term survivorship), also to compare caregiver and patient stories.