Family Communication Patterns and Willingness to Engage in Family Discussion about Organ Donation

Abstract

Individuals can register as organ donors via state organ donor registries. But when individuals wish to donate their organs in the future, it is also important for them to engage in family discussion about these wishes. In many cases of organ donation, family members need to consent to the wishes of the deceased. In order to better understand possible reasons why young people may or may not engage in family discussions about organ donation, the current study focused on undergraduate students. Because they are young, undergraduates and their family members may be less likely to think about a possibility for their untimely death. Because of their youth, however, if undergraduates face an unfortunate deadly accident, they can become deceased donors well-suited for saving many others' lives. Undergraduate participants (n = 461) in the United States responded to a questionnaire assessing two dimensions of family communication patterns (conformity and conversation orientations), altruism, attitudes about organ donation, intention to sign an organ donor card, and willingness to talk to family about organ donation. Findings showed that attitude toward organ donation was a stronger predictor of willingness to engage in family discussion when a conformity orientation was high than when it was low (simple slopes, b = 0.28 versus b = 0.07). On the other hand, intention to sign a donor card was a stronger predictor of willingness to engage in family discussion when a conversation orientation was high than when it was low (simple slopes, b = 0.70 versus b = 0.45). Additionally, willingness to engage in family discussion was positively related to the self-reported behavior of family discussion about organ donation one week later.