University of Delaware psychology student wins NIH Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award

Amber J. Belcher, a doctoral student in psychology at the University of Delaware, has won the Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The fellowship will support Belcher's research on how couples cope with breast cancer.

Breast cancer is second only to skin cancer as the most common cancer among women in the United States. According to the American Cancer Society, every year nearly 200,000 women are diagnosed with invasive breast cancer in the United States and over 40,000 die from the disease.

Although progress in early detection and treatment has steadily increased breast cancer survival rates, a diagnosis of breast cancer can be emotionally upsetting on many levels. Belcher is examining how breast cancer can influence the everyday lives of couples coping with this medical condition.

"Significant stress and adjustment problems often are present in both the patients and spouses as she undergoes treatment, and family roles and daily routines change," Belcher says. "Even after treatment is completed, couples may deal with concerns about recurrence or struggle with transitioning back to the way life was before breast cancer."

At Christiana Care Health System's Helen F. Graham Cancer Center in Newark, Del., Belcher is conducting a diary study in which the couples are asked to respond daily to questions about mood, intimacy, and how often emotional and practical support is provided to and received from both patients and their spouses.

The patients and their spouses complete an initial questionnaire shortly after the patient's surgery. Then the couples are asked to complete morning/nightly electronic surveys using, for example, personal digital assistants (PDAs) for 14 consecutive days. Couples also will be followed up six months later.

"This fellowship will allow our team to examine research designs capable of capturing the effects of support transactions as they unfold in daily life," Belcher says. "We hope this will offer new insights into how cancer occurs in a shared, interpersonal context -- whereby patients and their non-patient partners can both provide support to and receive support from each other throughout the cancer experience. Understanding daily support between couples has important implications for improving couple-focused therapies and advancing our understanding of interpersonal processes."

Belcher's project is an integral part of an ongoing collaboration funded by the National Cancer Institute between UD's Department of Psychology and Christiana Care Health System.

The partnership grant not only contributes to the University's health initiatives and the growing Delaware Health Sciences Alliance, but also provides a unique infrastructure to support graduate research and clinical training, according to Jean-Philippe Laurenceau, Belcher's adviser.

Laurenceau, associate professor of psychology, and Larry Cohen, professor of psychology, are co-principal investigators on the grant at UD, working with Scott Siegel, director of cancer psychology at Christiana Care's Helen F. Graham Cancer Center.

"Cancer is a 'we-disease' in that it affects not only patients but also their significant others," Laurenceau notes. "Amber is finding that daily support provided by partners to patients, as well as patients to partners, help both members of the couple maintain connection through this adversity. We are enormously proud of Amber's hard work and accomplishments."

Belcher joins several other recent UD recipients of the Kirschstein fellowship including Johanna Bick, doctoral student in psychology working with Mary Dozier, Amy E. du Pont Chair of Child Development; Damion Grasso, doctoral student in psychology working with Prof. Robert F. Simons; and Stephan Lindsey, postdoctoral researcher in the laboratory of Eleftherios Papoutsakis, Eugene du Pont Chair of Chemical Engineering and faculty fellow at the Delaware Biotechnology Institute.

The late Ruth L. Kirschstein, after whom the award is named, made history as the first woman to direct an NIH institute -- the National Institute of General Medical Sciences -- and later served as acting director of NIH.

Kirschstein was a strong advocate for research training, especially interdisciplinary predoctoral programs and programs to increase the number of minority scientists in emerging areas. In 2002, Congress renamed the National Research Service Award program in her honor.