Table 3.

Examples of Language Use.

Word Category	Example
Partner’s Positive Emotion	I found out the prospects looked good, so I was much more relaxed and… the sickness somehow brought us even closer to each other because we appreciate each other more.
Patient’s Negative Emotion	I think the biggest stress for me was being worried about the cancer coming back.
Son/Daughter’s Anger	I mean, I’m sure we like each other but it’s not like we’re not got to stop fighting or we’re not got to stop yelling at each other.
Son/Daughter’s Anxiety	My biggest one would be the fear of losing you… and another stress associated with that is the miscellaneous family problems that we have and how they impact your health.
Patient’s Sadness	Ok, I mean basically for me to be able to cry and express my feelings without you getting upset… or for me to have on my days, when I had a lot of bad days, depressed days, really really down days.
Partner’s High We-ratio (Low use of “I”)	So we just had to figure out how to wash the clothes, cook the meals, get everyone to school, tuba lessons… As we are getting organized and saying ok, we’ve gotten through this, and do what we need to do.
Partner’s Low We-ratio (High use of “I”)	It was a new experience. Something that I had never gone through before. And I think, in my mind I had set up some criteria for how I was going to handle myself and situations no matter what happened. Stress was really there until you completed your treatment.
Patient’s You	When did you start talking to me about that? You don’t talk to me… And it’s time for supper and cleaning up, you take a bath and you go to bed, and you don’t make time to talk to me.

Note. Word categories were defined and frequencies counted by LIWC.