Browsing by Author "Bute, Jennifer J."

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    "A Lot of People Want to Know, They Just Have No Idea How to Ask": A Needs Assessment of a Reproductive Health Peer Education Program
    (2024-07) Comer, Anna Catherine; Bute, Jennifer J.; Brann, Maria; Head, Katharine
    Reproductive health education is an important part of having a comprehensive understanding of health as a whole and sexual health specifically; however, reproductive health is often overlooked in university health education. Peer education initiatives have long been used in sexual health to create a comfortable environment for peer learners, while teaching valuable information that impacts both peer educators and peer learners. Students and peer educators are the primary stakeholders in a university reproductive health education program and can provide insight into topics and delivery that are most salient to them. Using a needs assessment framework, I conducted focus groups with stakeholders (n=10) to understand what information participants found important and how they wanted that information to be presented to them. I analyzed the data using thematic analysis and the social ecological model (Stokols, 1996) to better understand what levels of influence where impacting participants’ access to reproductive health education. Results provided practical applications related to content and method of delivery of reproductive health education as well as theoretical applications in regard to the explicit inclusion of communication within the social ecological model.
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    Asian American women's perspectives on donating healthy breast tissue: implications for recruitment methods and messaging
    (2016-12) Ridley-Merriweather, Katherine E.; Parrish-Sprowl, John; Bute, Jennifer J.; Head, Katharine J.
    Asian women have a lower risk than Caucasians, African Americans, and Latinas of developing breast cancer (BC). Yet, once Asians move to the U.S. their risk rates measurably increase. The Susan G. Komen® Tissue Bank at the IU Simon Cancer Center (KTB), the only biobank of its kind in the world, collects healthy breast tissue from women of all racial groups to use as controls in BC research. The KTB represents a critical tool in efforts to treat and prevent BC; however, Asian American (AA) women display marked reticence towards donating tissue to the KTB. The purpose of this study is to use the basic components of Grounded Practical Theory to explore potential messaging that may result in AAs’ more positive outlook on breast tissue donation. This study recruited seventeen (N=17) AA women to share their perspectives on donating breast tissue for research purposes. Participants took part in an interactive focus group exploring potential messaging for successfully recruiting AA women to the KTB study. Findings revealed that: a) participants retained a culturally-embedded discomfort with donating, and a general distrust that their donation would be handled ethically and appropriately; b) the women possessed an extraordinary need for knowledge about all facets of the donation process; c) participants perceived that they lack a personal connection to BC, making it difficult for them to generate any truly altruistic tendencies to perform the desired behavior, or to understand a need to do so; and d) they possess a strong desire to learn why it seems important to the KTB to collect their tissue, and especially about the increased BC rates and risk for Asians who move to or are born in the U.S. The findings from this study have important implications for others who work in applied clinical settings and are interested in addressing racial disparities in medical research through more effective and targeted recruitment messaging.
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    At a Loss for Words: Using Performance to Explain How Friends Communicate About Infertility
    (2023-06) Binion, Kelsey Elizabeth; Brann, Maria; Beckman, Emily; Bute, Jennifer J.; Longtin, Krista J.
    In the United States, approximately one in five women are unable to get pregnant after one year of trying. Due to the pervasiveness of pronatalism in Western society, having a child is widely assumed to be a natural and expected part of womanhood. Society’s master narratives reinforce these ideals and stigmatize the experiences of women who have infertility. This multi-phase research study examined how women discuss their infertility journey with their friends. The study’s aims were to understand friendships within the context of infertility, how the relationship affects a woman’s identity, and the communicative behaviors used in conversations. Fifteen interviews were conducted with women who experienced or are experiencing infertility and had discussed their past or current challenges with a friend. Results of a phronetic iterative analysis suggested that women who have personal experience with infertility (a) disclose to close/best friends, (b) communicate their identity as “broken,” (c) desire emotional support, and (d) strategically navigate conversations as they encounter positive and negative messages. These results were transformed into a performance, which included six monologues and a talkback. The purpose of the arts-based methodology was to disseminate results and assess the performance’s impact. Seventy-three individuals attended one of the two performances in April 2023, and 50 attendees completed the post-performance evaluation. The quantitative results suggest that attendees felt informed about the complexities of infertility, gained a new perspective, received advice about how to have future conversations, and did not feel offended by the content. Through a thematic analysis, four themes emerged from the two talkback sessions and evaluation comments: being informed about infertility as a health condition, appreciating the theatrical format to learn, connecting to the performance to understand the illness experience, and feeling comfortable navigating conversations about infertility. Despite the variance in infertility experiences, friends are essential social support figures as women navigate infertility, and there are best practices when having a conversation, as demonstrated in the performance. This study’s implications include providing communication strategies to support women with infertility and recognizing that an arts-based methodology can highlight counterstories, inform about a stigmatized health issue, and engage the community.
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    Breaking Bad News: A Randomized Trial Assessing Resident Performance After Novel Video Instruction
    (Cureus, 2021-06-05) Shanks, Anthony L.; Brann, Maria; Bute, Jennifer J.; Borse, Vyvian; Tonismae, Tiffany; Scott, Nikki; Obstetrics and Gynecology, School of Medicine
    Introduction; Delivering bad news to patients is an essential skill for physicians, which is often developed through patient encounters. Residents in our program participate in objective structured clinical examinations (OSCEs) on an annual basis to evaluate their skills in these scenarios. Our objectives were to develop an educational video and determine if an educational video provided to residents prior to OSCEs would improve performance. Methods: Previous OSCEs were reviewed to identify best practices and to create a four-minute video highlighting the "do's and don'ts" of delivering bad news. Residents in two post-graduate year (PGY) classes were randomized to watch the video prior to or after a standardized patient encounter. Three masked reviewers assessed resident empathy, attention, and understanding on 10 five-point Likert scales and assigned a total score (scale: 0-50). Hedges' g was used to assess mean scores and effect size. Results: A total of 17 residents participated in the evaluation: nine in the pre-OSCE video group and eight in the control group. Residents randomized to the video prior to the patient encounter had a mean score of 37.01 (SD=3.6). Residents randomized to the control group had a mean score of 35.38 (SD=4.85). Hedges' g was 0.37 (95% CI: -0.59 to 1.33). Conclusion: Residents randomized to the video group had a small increase in OSCE performance, which was not statistically significant. The novel video was helpful and addresses the need for a quick pre-assessment educational tool, though interns and graduating medical students may be a more appropriate target audience for instruction.
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    Building a “Better Life”: The Transformative Effects of Adolescent Pregnancy and Parenting
    (Sage, 2015-01) Cherry, Colleen O'Brien; Chumbler, Neale; Bute, Jennifer J.; Huff, Amber; Department of Communication Studies, School of Liberal Arts
    Adolescent pregnancy is often described as a major concern in public health and is associated with negative outcomes for educational and career attainment. Our objective was to compare the future aspirations of pregnant and parenting adolescents and identify social or structural barriers that they experience in their daily lives using journal entries from pregnant and parenting adolescents. The journals, which served as primary data sources, were completed by 52 multi-ethnic pregnant and parenting adolescents aged 15 to 19 in Indiana. Both pregnant and parenting adolescents aspired to provide a “better life” for their children that included finishing school and obtaining a career. An emergent theme is that the experience of pregnancy and parenting is transformative and may invoke a positive refocusing of life aspirations for educational and career attainment. However, social stigma and barriers exist that make achieving educational and employment opportunities difficult. The study findings indicate that pregnant and parenting adolescents need strong social support networks and practical tools to help harness their motivation and transcend social and material barriers to achieve their goals and aspirations.
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    Co-Ownership of Private Information in the Miscarriage Context
    (2014-12) Bute, Jennifer J.; Brann, Maria
    Pregnancy loss due to miscarriage is a pervasive health issue. Although talking about the miscarriage experience with friends and family members has been linked to better adjustment, revealing this loss can be difficult because discussing a miscarriage often makes people uncomfortable. Moreover, couples often manage this information jointly as they decide whether to share the miscarriage with people outside the dyad. We conducted in-depth interviews with couples to explore the nature of co-ownership in the miscarriage context and to identify the privacy rules that couples develop to manage this information. We found that couples frame miscarriage as a shared but distinct experience and that both members exert rights of ownership over the information. Couples' privacy rules centered on issues of social support and others' need to know about the loss. Even though couples described their privacy rules as implicitly understood, they also recalled having explicit conversations to develop rules. We discuss how the management of co-owned information can improve communication and maintain relationships.
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    Communicating to promote informed decisions in the context of early pregnancy loss
    (Elsevier, 2017) Brann, Maria; Bute, Jennifer J.; Communication Studies, School of Liberal Arts
    Objective. To evaluate residents’ ability to engage standardized patients in informed decision making during a pregnancy loss scenario. Methods. Forty patient encounters between interns and standardized patients were coded to assess informed decision-making practices, exploration of unexpressed concerns, and support provision. Results. Interns engaged in minimum informed decision making but did not address all of the communicative elements necessary for informed decisions, and most elements were only partially addressed. Patients in this study did not receive information about all management options, their concerns were not addressed, and there was limited support communicated for their decision. Conclusion. This study offers an initial assessment of a communicative approach to evaluate and improve decision making during early pregnancy loss. A comprehensive approach to making informed decisions must include discussion of all management options, exploration of patient preferences and concerns, and support for the patient’s decision. Practice Implications. Healthcare providers could benefit from communication skills training to communicate more effectively with patients to help them make more informed decisions.
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    Communication About Lifestyle Change Between Cardiac Patients and Their Partners
    (2006) Goldsmith, Daena J.; Gumminger, Kristin Lindholm; Bute, Jennifer J.
    Although adherence to a heart-healthy lifestyle can improve recovery from a heart attack or bypass surgery, compliance with recommended behavior modifications is generally low. A spouse or partner can influence patient lifestyle change but much remains to be learned about what types of interactions facilitate adherence versus produce overprotection or resistance. We interviewed 25 persons who experienced a cardiac event in the past year and 16 partners. Our goals were to describe how couples talk about adherence and to identify features of communication that were variable, meaningful, and potentially consequential. Couples varied in how often they talked about adherence and those who talked a little, a lot, or occasionally differed not just in quantity of talk but also in the meaning of talk and strategies for regulating its frequency. Adherence talk occurred in various speech events, including praise, problem-solving discussion, acknowledgment, meta-communication, argument, and compliance-gaining. Different types of episodes entailed different roles and relational qualities. When partners engaged in compliance-gaining, the style in which they attempted social control (e.g., direct or indirect, humorous or serious, ritualistic or not, verbal or nonverbal) shaped its meaning. Our findings are consistent with Goldsmith’s (2004) theory of social support and have implications for how we conceptualize and measure couple communication about adherence. Our descriptions of behavior may help couples understand why they experience interactions as supportive or not. Describing behaviors can also give validation to couples experiencing communication challenges as well as offer a range of possible alternatives for interacting.
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    The Development and Psychometric Testing of an Inventory to Measure Health-Focused Perceived Family Support and Communication Behaviors with Chronic Disease Patients: A Three-Phase Study
    (2019-06) Harsin, Amanda M.; Brann, Maria; Head, Katharine J.; Bute, Jennifer J.; Rawl, Susan M.
    Hospitals and policymakers acknowledge the importance of the family in improved healthcare outcomes. Although there has been an increase in policies and research to bring families into planning, delivery, and evaluation of healthcare, there has not been a means to assess health-focused perceived support and communication behaviors. Without a means of assessing these factors, healthcare professionals cannot succinctly evaluate support and communication in a family system or provide recommendations for engaging family members in providing beneficial health-focused support and communication. This study involved the creation of the Inventory for Family Health-Focused Perceived Support and Communication Behaviors (Family HF-PSCB). Informed by family systems theory, social support literature, and health communication behaviors research, this three-phase study consisted of (a) generating items for the Family HF-PSCB, (b) establishing test-retest reliability, and (c) establishing a factor structure and convergent validity. Because of the increase of chronic disease in the United States, the Family HF-PSCB was created and tested with samples of individuals having chronic disease(s). Using a mixed methods approach, in-depth interviews with 12 participants generated 91 items for psychometric analysis. These items were tested through expert content review, and in pilot testing (n = 23), the remaining 84 items demonstrated test- retest and internal reliability. Through factor analysis (n = 209), two factors emerged to explain 72.1% of the variance. The final Family HF-PSCB contains 13 items, which indicates an individual’s perception of family health-focused support and communication behaviors. The factor explaining 63.2% of the variance has 8 items demonstrating healthfocused communication behaviors, and the second factor has 5 items demonstrating health-focused instrumental support. The developed scale suggests that family healthfocused communication behaviors may be a more explanatory variable in the family system for someone with chronic disease(s). The 13-item Family HF-PSCB demonstrates convergent validity through significant correlations with the Perceived Social Support Family Scale and the General Functioning Scale of the McMaster Family Assessment Device. Future studies should explore the correlation of the Family HF-PSCB with health outcomes attributed to symptom management in populations of chronic disease patients.
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    Development of a patient-centric food allergy research program: A model for action
    (Wiley, 2018) Bute, Jennifer J.; Broome, S. Brantlee; Marcus, Jessica N.; Mikulcik, Sandy; Vickery, Brian; Communication Studies, School of Liberal Arts