Fergus, Karen D.Harb, Sami Imad2022-12-142022-12-142022-08-172022-12-14http://hdl.handle.net/10315/40738Young women with breast cancer (BC) and their partners face several psychosocial difficulties that are generally elevated in this age group relative to older women with BC. I examined to what extent, and how, may becoming more aware of potentially relationship-enhancing and -eroding behaviours, through a daily self-in-relationship observation exercise, relate to positive relationship adjustment in the context of an online couple-based intervention for young women living with BC and their male partners. In the exercise, partners observed and textually described interactions deemed to contribute to relationship closeness or distance over the course of at least a week. Partners subsequently reviewed together (and discussed) the collection of their recorded entries. Upon completion of the exercise, partners provided feedback on the exercise’s perceived benefit and likeability on a one to five Likert scale, and elaborated on their ratings via open-ended text boxes. Analysis I utilized an integrative mixed methods design that led to adding a partial-proxy predictor of effort in analysis, which showed this variable and perception of benefit to trend towards a small positive relationship with improved relationship adjustment. Analysis II entailed a qualitative thematic analysis yielding four themes: “Receptivity to exercise,” “Shifting how I attend in relationship,” “Generated insight,” and “Shifting how I engage in relationship.” I discuss how engaging in the exercise may have had a positive influence on relationship adjustment in young couples coping with breast cancer, and how they engaged with and benefitted (or not) from the exercise, including how it facilitated interpersonal awareness and ‘bringing partners closer together’ according to their language accounts.Author owns copyright, except where explicitly noted. Please contact the author directly with licensing requests.PsychologyOncologyElectronic Thesis or Dissertation2022-12-14CouplesBreast cancerMindfulnessCouple-based interventionPsychosocial oncologyMixed-methods