Moira O’connor
Biographic Data
| ID | 3887356 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Moira O’connor |
| GIVEN NAMES | Moira |
| FAMILY NAME | O’connor |
| SIGNATURE | O’CONNOR M |
| AFFILIATIONS | Curtin University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-7298-5553 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 22 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 26 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 22 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2000 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
You learn to live; It is an altered existence: A study of mothers who care for adolescents and young adults navigating a sarcoma diagnosis
Objective The objective of this study was to explore the lived experiences of mothers caring for adolescents and young adults (AYAs) diagnosed with sarcoma using an existential phenomenological approach. Methodology Nine mothers participated in conversational interviews. Reflexive thematic analysis, informed by Van Deurzen's four existential dimensions (Umwelt, Mitwelt, Eigenwelt, and Uberwelt), identified recurrent themes within and across inter…
Assessing explicit weight bias among Australian health care students: Suitability of the Beliefs About Obese Persons Scale (Baop) and the Antifat Attitudes Questionnaire (AFA)
The aim of this study was to examine the suitability of the Beliefs About Obese Persons Scale (BAOP) and Antifat Attitudes Questionnaire (AFA) among Australian health care students. Specifically, we explored the factor structures of the two scales, their psychometric properties including internal consistency and convergent validity, and whether they were impacted by social desirability bias. Students studying health care courses at Australian uni…
The Psychosocial Effect of Parental Cancer: Qualitative Interviews with Patients’ Dependent Children
Children experience considerable levels of ongoing worry and distress when a parent is diagnosed with cancer and have difficulties comprehending and articulating this. They also feel a level of disconnection from their usual support systems (e.g., parents) and are limited regarding who they can seek out and talk to. Mitigating children's ongoing worries and distress by promoting the availability and accessibility of parents and other supports to …
A Conceptual Model Depicting How Children Are Affected by Parental Cancer: A Constructivist Grounded Theory Approach
Cancer patients' children are vulnerable to psychosocial and behavioural issues. The mechanisms underlying how children are affected by their parent's diagnosis are unknown, warranting further research. This study investigated how children are affected by their parent's cancer diagnosis and provides a theoretical model conceptualising this experience. Informed by methods of grounded theory, embedded within a social constructivist framework, 38 in…
Healthy Eating as a New Way of Life: A Qualitative Study of Successful Long-Term Diet Change
Findings from the present study contribute to the literature in highlighting the importance of internal motivation and autonomy for health behaviours. Findings may inform the development of healthy eating interventions. Encouraging autonomy, fostering values aligned with a healthier diet, and helping individuals establish daily habits is likely to support change
Beliefs and Emotions Underpin Community Attitudes Towards Voluntary Assisted Dying in Australia
Assisted dying refers to the steps of the administration of a voluntary assisted dying substance and the administration of the substance. In Australia, assisted dying is now legal in all states. However, there is limited knowledge of what underpins the community's attitudes toward assisted dying. It is important for health professionals to understand what underpins attitudes toward assisted dying when navigating the option with patients and famil…
Development and initial test of the self-report grief and bereavement assessment
Implementing evidence-based and cost-effective bereavement care is a challenge. A self-report measure could assist to identify caregivers at-risk of prolonged grief. We developed a new measure via five steps: identification of risk and protective factors for prolonged grief, item generation, consultation with an expert panel ( n = 8), review by the academic team and expert panel, and a pilot test with family caregivers ( n = 19) from three pallia…
Community workshops increase advance care planning knowledge, appointment of legal proxies and completion of end-of life written plans
Advance Care Planning involves having conversations, completing documents detailing individuals' end-of life treatment and care preferences, and appointing legal proxies who make health, lifestyle, or financial decisions. Although beneficial outcomes have been demonstrated, community rates of Advance Care Planning remain low. We developed a theoretically based workshop to increase knowledge and change behaviors in relation to Advance Care Plannin…
Torn in two: Experiences of Mothers Who Are Pregnant when Their Child Is Diagnosed With Cancer
Mothers of children diagnosed with cancer have been shown to experience high rates of psychological distress and poor physical health. Pregnancy further increases the healthcare needs of mothers due to the marked physiological changes and psychological adaptations. Our study aimed to explore the experiences of mothers who were pregnant and/or had a baby while their older child was receiving treatment for cancer. Our study employed a qualitative d…
Australian Health Professionals' Attitudes toward Voluntary Assisted Dying: A Cross-Sectional Survey
Voluntary assisted dying (VAD) is when a terminally ill person with decision-making capacity consensually ends their life with assistance from an authorised professional. Many countries have legalised VAD, and health professionals' roles within VAD frameworks are varied. Health professionals must be well informed of their legal obligations to ensure they practice within the legal boundaries, and those professionals with objections toward VAD shou…
Something that happens at home and stays at home”: An exploration of the lived experience of young carers in Western Australia
There are approximately 350,000 young carers in Australia, yet their experience is not well understood. Young carers face adversities and disenfranchisement by being a young person in a caring role, and the role can affect other areas of their lives. We explored the lived experiences of young carers, aged 14-25 years (N = 13), from Western Australia through in-depth semi-structured interviews. A phenomenological approach was adopted. A thematic a…
Exploratory study of metacognitive beliefs about coping processes in prolonged grief symptomatology
Despite research examining the role of metacognitive beliefs about coping processes in maintaining psychological disorders, to date, no studies have explored their role in the maintenance of prolonged grief. Twelve semistructured interviews were conducted with bereavement specialists and bereaved people with elevated grief to identify metacognitive beliefs about coping processes relevant to prolonged grief. Analysis revealed several metacognitive…
The Preparation of Graduate Health Professionals for Working with Bereaved Clients: An Australian Perspective
Students enrolled in health profession courses require grief education so that, upon graduation, they are able to meet the needs of clients living with loss and grief. We investigated grief and loss education in six Australian university programs--medicine, nursing, counseling, psychology, social work, and occupational therapy--drawing from course documents and face-to-face interviews with key staff and final-year students. Only the counseling co…
Bridging the Gaps in Palliative Care Bereavement Support: An International Perspective
A review of palliative care policies and bereavement support practices in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, and Japan demonstrated 4 challenges: questions over providing universal versus targeted support; a lack of clear evidence driving service delivery; informal or no risk assessment; and limited or no evaluation of services. Bridging the gaps between the policy and practice of palliative care bereavement support requires ac…
Posttraumatic stress and posttraumatic growth and their relationship to coping and self-efficacy in Northwest Australian cyclone communities
The main focus of disaster research conducted to date has been on providing insights into the negative consequences of experiencing a serious threat or adversity. The present study extends this research endeavor by investigating the positive posttrauma resiliency experiences of 512 survey respondents living in four cyclone-prone communities in Northwest Australia. The findings reveal that disaster stress is often accompanied by disaster growth an…
Do models of care designed for terminally ill ‘home alone’ people improve their end-of-life experience? A patient perspective: ‘Home Alone’ Models of Care
Palliative care patients who live alone report greater psychological distress, and are less likely to die at home than those living with a family carer. However, there is a lack of research on the value of models of care that specifically address this disadvantage. This article describes the experiences of terminally ill 'home alone' people using one of two models of care aimed at maintaining participants' need for independent living, focusing on…
Testing models of care for terminally ill people who live alone at home: Is a randomised controlled trial the best approach
This project implemented and evaluated two models of care for terminally ill people living alone at home: installing personal alarms (PA) and providing extra care aide (CA) support. The primary aim was to assess the feasibility of using a randomised controlled trial (RCT) approach with this group. A secondary aim was to assess the potential impact of the models of care on the participants' quality of life, symptom distress, anxiety and depression…
Family and social networks after bereavement: experiences of support, change and isolation: Family and social networks after bereavement
The role of family and social support networks on grief experiences following the death of a family member in a road traffic accident is explored. Twenty-one bereaved informants were interviewed and the data analysed using grounded theory methodology. We outline the ways in which a crash fatality impacts upon familial and social relationships. The data clearly demonstrate that although the death of a loved one precipitated closer familial and soc…
Acts of Resistance: Breaking the Silence of Grief Following Traffic Crash Fatalities
Theoretical arguments and empirical evidence demonstrate the limited utility of a narrow construction of "normal" grief. Sudden and violent death, the young age of the deceased, and perceptions of death preventability are associated with grief reactions that extend beyond an expected grief response. Interviews were conducted with 21 adults bereaved through the death of a family member in a traffic crash. We present their attempts to resist notion…
Relationships between quality of life, spiritual well-being, and psychological adjustment styles for people living with leukaemia: An exploratory study
This paper reports on the relationships between quality of life, spiritual well-being, and psychological adjustment styles for people living with leukaemia. Participants were 40 adults (26 women and 14 men) aged between 22 and 80 years living with acute or chronic leukaemia in Western Australia. Participants completed three scales measuring spiritual well-being (FACIT-Sp-12-C Version 4; Cella, 1997Cella, D. 1997. “Functional Assessment of Chronic…
Living beyond the Unanticipated Sudden Death of a Partner: A Phenomenological Study
This research project explored grief and its impact upon men and women who have experienced the sudden and unanticipated death of his or her partner. It included what grief meant to them, how it was manifested in his or her everyday lives and how his or her partner's death had impacted upon his or her relationship with themselves, with others and the world. A Husserlian phenomenological approach was used to explore the experiences of the ten wome…
Environmental Education and Attitudes: Emotions and Beliefs are What is Needed
The main focus of environmental education programs has been to change environmental behavior through increasing environmental knowledge. As many environmental studies have failed to apply successfully attitude theory in researching environmental attitudes, the present study investigated the cognitive and affective bases of environmental attitudes to indicate that it is what people feel and believe about the environment that determines their attit…
Acts of Resistance: Breaking the Silence of Grief Following Traffic Crash Fatalities
Theoretical arguments and empirical evidence demonstrate the limited utility of a narrow construction of "normal" grief. Sudden and violent death, the young age of the deceased, and perceptions of death preventability are associated with grief reactions that extend beyond an expected grief response. Interviews were conducted with 21 adults bereaved through the death of a family member in a traffic crash. We present their attempts to resist notion…
Something that happens at home and stays at home”: An exploration of the lived experience of young carers in Western Australia
There are approximately 350,000 young carers in Australia, yet their experience is not well understood. Young carers face adversities and disenfranchisement by being a young person in a caring role, and the role can affect other areas of their lives. We explored the lived experiences of young carers, aged 14-25 years (N = 13), from Western Australia through in-depth semi-structured interviews. A phenomenological approach was adopted. A thematic a…
Exploratory study of metacognitive beliefs about coping processes in prolonged grief symptomatology
Despite research examining the role of metacognitive beliefs about coping processes in maintaining psychological disorders, to date, no studies have explored their role in the maintenance of prolonged grief. Twelve semistructured interviews were conducted with bereavement specialists and bereaved people with elevated grief to identify metacognitive beliefs about coping processes relevant to prolonged grief. Analysis revealed several metacognitive…
Development and initial test of the self-report grief and bereavement assessment
Implementing evidence-based and cost-effective bereavement care is a challenge. A self-report measure could assist to identify caregivers at-risk of prolonged grief. We developed a new measure via five steps: identification of risk and protective factors for prolonged grief, item generation, consultation with an expert panel ( n = 8), review by the academic team and expert panel, and a pilot test with family caregivers ( n = 19) from three pallia…
Australian Health Professionals' Attitudes toward Voluntary Assisted Dying: A Cross-Sectional Survey
Voluntary assisted dying (VAD) is when a terminally ill person with decision-making capacity consensually ends their life with assistance from an authorised professional. Many countries have legalised VAD, and health professionals' roles within VAD frameworks are varied. Health professionals must be well informed of their legal obligations to ensure they practice within the legal boundaries, and those professionals with objections toward VAD shou…
Bridging the Gaps in Palliative Care Bereavement Support: An International Perspective
A review of palliative care policies and bereavement support practices in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, and Japan demonstrated 4 challenges: questions over providing universal versus targeted support; a lack of clear evidence driving service delivery; informal or no risk assessment; and limited or no evaluation of services. Bridging the gaps between the policy and practice of palliative care bereavement support requires ac…
Do models of care designed for terminally ill ‘home alone’ people improve their end-of-life experience? A patient perspective: ‘Home Alone’ Models of Care
Palliative care patients who live alone report greater psychological distress, and are less likely to die at home than those living with a family carer. However, there is a lack of research on the value of models of care that specifically address this disadvantage. This article describes the experiences of terminally ill 'home alone' people using one of two models of care aimed at maintaining participants' need for independent living, focusing on…
Testing models of care for terminally ill people who live alone at home: Is a randomised controlled trial the best approach
This project implemented and evaluated two models of care for terminally ill people living alone at home: installing personal alarms (PA) and providing extra care aide (CA) support. The primary aim was to assess the feasibility of using a randomised controlled trial (RCT) approach with this group. A secondary aim was to assess the potential impact of the models of care on the participants' quality of life, symptom distress, anxiety and depression…
Environmental Education and Attitudes: Emotions and Beliefs are What is Needed
The main focus of environmental education programs has been to change environmental behavior through increasing environmental knowledge. As many environmental studies have failed to apply successfully attitude theory in researching environmental attitudes, the present study investigated the cognitive and affective bases of environmental attitudes to indicate that it is what people feel and believe about the environment that determines their attit…
Relationships between quality of life, spiritual well-being, and psychological adjustment styles for people living with leukaemia: An exploratory study
This paper reports on the relationships between quality of life, spiritual well-being, and psychological adjustment styles for people living with leukaemia. Participants were 40 adults (26 women and 14 men) aged between 22 and 80 years living with acute or chronic leukaemia in Western Australia. Participants completed three scales measuring spiritual well-being (FACIT-Sp-12-C Version 4; Cella, 1997Cella, D. 1997. “Functional Assessment of Chronic…
Living beyond the Unanticipated Sudden Death of a Partner: A Phenomenological Study
This research project explored grief and its impact upon men and women who have experienced the sudden and unanticipated death of his or her partner. It included what grief meant to them, how it was manifested in his or her everyday lives and how his or her partner's death had impacted upon his or her relationship with themselves, with others and the world. A Husserlian phenomenological approach was used to explore the experiences of the ten wome…
Acts of Resistance: Breaking the Silence of Grief Following Traffic Crash Fatalities
Theoretical arguments and empirical evidence demonstrate the limited utility of a narrow construction of "normal" grief. Sudden and violent death, the young age of the deceased, and perceptions of death preventability are associated with grief reactions that extend beyond an expected grief response. Interviews were conducted with 21 adults bereaved through the death of a family member in a traffic crash. We present their attempts to resist notion…
Family and social networks after bereavement: experiences of support, change and isolation: Family and social networks after bereavement
The role of family and social support networks on grief experiences following the death of a family member in a road traffic accident is explored. Twenty-one bereaved informants were interviewed and the data analysed using grounded theory methodology. We outline the ways in which a crash fatality impacts upon familial and social relationships. The data clearly demonstrate that although the death of a loved one precipitated closer familial and soc…
Posttraumatic stress and posttraumatic growth and their relationship to coping and self-efficacy in Northwest Australian cyclone communities
The main focus of disaster research conducted to date has been on providing insights into the negative consequences of experiencing a serious threat or adversity. The present study extends this research endeavor by investigating the positive posttrauma resiliency experiences of 512 survey respondents living in four cyclone-prone communities in Northwest Australia. The findings reveal that disaster stress is often accompanied by disaster growth an…
Do models of care designed for terminally ill ‘home alone’ people improve their end-of-life experience? A patient perspective: ‘Home Alone’ Models of Care
Palliative care patients who live alone report greater psychological distress, and are less likely to die at home than those living with a family carer. However, there is a lack of research on the value of models of care that specifically address this disadvantage. This article describes the experiences of terminally ill 'home alone' people using one of two models of care aimed at maintaining participants' need for independent living, focusing on…
Testing models of care for terminally ill people who live alone at home: Is a randomised controlled trial the best approach
This project implemented and evaluated two models of care for terminally ill people living alone at home: installing personal alarms (PA) and providing extra care aide (CA) support. The primary aim was to assess the feasibility of using a randomised controlled trial (RCT) approach with this group. A secondary aim was to assess the potential impact of the models of care on the participants' quality of life, symptom distress, anxiety and depression…
The Preparation of Graduate Health Professionals for Working with Bereaved Clients: An Australian Perspective
Students enrolled in health profession courses require grief education so that, upon graduation, they are able to meet the needs of clients living with loss and grief. We investigated grief and loss education in six Australian university programs--medicine, nursing, counseling, psychology, social work, and occupational therapy--drawing from course documents and face-to-face interviews with key staff and final-year students. Only the counseling co…
Bridging the Gaps in Palliative Care Bereavement Support: An International Perspective
A review of palliative care policies and bereavement support practices in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, and Japan demonstrated 4 challenges: questions over providing universal versus targeted support; a lack of clear evidence driving service delivery; informal or no risk assessment; and limited or no evaluation of services. Bridging the gaps between the policy and practice of palliative care bereavement support requires ac…
Something that happens at home and stays at home”: An exploration of the lived experience of young carers in Western Australia
There are approximately 350,000 young carers in Australia, yet their experience is not well understood. Young carers face adversities and disenfranchisement by being a young person in a caring role, and the role can affect other areas of their lives. We explored the lived experiences of young carers, aged 14-25 years (N = 13), from Western Australia through in-depth semi-structured interviews. A phenomenological approach was adopted. A thematic a…
Exploratory study of metacognitive beliefs about coping processes in prolonged grief symptomatology
Despite research examining the role of metacognitive beliefs about coping processes in maintaining psychological disorders, to date, no studies have explored their role in the maintenance of prolonged grief. Twelve semistructured interviews were conducted with bereavement specialists and bereaved people with elevated grief to identify metacognitive beliefs about coping processes relevant to prolonged grief. Analysis revealed several metacognitive…
Australian Health Professionals' Attitudes toward Voluntary Assisted Dying: A Cross-Sectional Survey
Voluntary assisted dying (VAD) is when a terminally ill person with decision-making capacity consensually ends their life with assistance from an authorised professional. Many countries have legalised VAD, and health professionals' roles within VAD frameworks are varied. Health professionals must be well informed of their legal obligations to ensure they practice within the legal boundaries, and those professionals with objections toward VAD shou…
Healthy Eating as a New Way of Life: A Qualitative Study of Successful Long-Term Diet Change
Findings from the present study contribute to the literature in highlighting the importance of internal motivation and autonomy for health behaviours. Findings may inform the development of healthy eating interventions. Encouraging autonomy, fostering values aligned with a healthier diet, and helping individuals establish daily habits is likely to support change
Beliefs and Emotions Underpin Community Attitudes Towards Voluntary Assisted Dying in Australia
Assisted dying refers to the steps of the administration of a voluntary assisted dying substance and the administration of the substance. In Australia, assisted dying is now legal in all states. However, there is limited knowledge of what underpins the community's attitudes toward assisted dying. It is important for health professionals to understand what underpins attitudes toward assisted dying when navigating the option with patients and famil…
Development and initial test of the self-report grief and bereavement assessment
Implementing evidence-based and cost-effective bereavement care is a challenge. A self-report measure could assist to identify caregivers at-risk of prolonged grief. We developed a new measure via five steps: identification of risk and protective factors for prolonged grief, item generation, consultation with an expert panel ( n = 8), review by the academic team and expert panel, and a pilot test with family caregivers ( n = 19) from three pallia…
Community workshops increase advance care planning knowledge, appointment of legal proxies and completion of end-of life written plans
Advance Care Planning involves having conversations, completing documents detailing individuals' end-of life treatment and care preferences, and appointing legal proxies who make health, lifestyle, or financial decisions. Although beneficial outcomes have been demonstrated, community rates of Advance Care Planning remain low. We developed a theoretically based workshop to increase knowledge and change behaviors in relation to Advance Care Plannin…
Torn in two: Experiences of Mothers Who Are Pregnant when Their Child Is Diagnosed With Cancer
Mothers of children diagnosed with cancer have been shown to experience high rates of psychological distress and poor physical health. Pregnancy further increases the healthcare needs of mothers due to the marked physiological changes and psychological adaptations. Our study aimed to explore the experiences of mothers who were pregnant and/or had a baby while their older child was receiving treatment for cancer. Our study employed a qualitative d…
Assessing explicit weight bias among Australian health care students: Suitability of the Beliefs About Obese Persons Scale (Baop) and the Antifat Attitudes Questionnaire (AFA)
The aim of this study was to examine the suitability of the Beliefs About Obese Persons Scale (BAOP) and Antifat Attitudes Questionnaire (AFA) among Australian health care students. Specifically, we explored the factor structures of the two scales, their psychometric properties including internal consistency and convergent validity, and whether they were impacted by social desirability bias. Students studying health care courses at Australian uni…
The Psychosocial Effect of Parental Cancer: Qualitative Interviews with Patients’ Dependent Children
Children experience considerable levels of ongoing worry and distress when a parent is diagnosed with cancer and have difficulties comprehending and articulating this. They also feel a level of disconnection from their usual support systems (e.g., parents) and are limited regarding who they can seek out and talk to. Mitigating children's ongoing worries and distress by promoting the availability and accessibility of parents and other supports to …
A Conceptual Model Depicting How Children Are Affected by Parental Cancer: A Constructivist Grounded Theory Approach
Cancer patients' children are vulnerable to psychosocial and behavioural issues. The mechanisms underlying how children are affected by their parent's diagnosis are unknown, warranting further research. This study investigated how children are affected by their parent's cancer diagnosis and provides a theoretical model conceptualising this experience. Informed by methods of grounded theory, embedded within a social constructivist framework, 38 in…
You learn to live; It is an altered existence: A study of mothers who care for adolescents and young adults navigating a sarcoma diagnosis
Objective The objective of this study was to explore the lived experiences of mothers caring for adolescents and young adults (AYAs) diagnosed with sarcoma using an existential phenomenological approach. Methodology Nine mothers participated in conversational interviews. Reflexive thematic analysis, informed by Van Deurzen's four existential dimensions (Umwelt, Mitwelt, Eigenwelt, and Uberwelt), identified recurrent themes within and across inter…
Psychology (20 works) · Medicine (16 works) · Palliative Care and End-of-Life Issues (11 works) · Clinical Psychology (10 works) · Grief, Bereavement, and Mental Health (10 works) · Psychotherapist (10 works) · Nursing (9 works) · Clinical Psychology (8 works) · Qualitative research (8 works) · Social Psychology (8 works)