• Suzyen Kraljevic, Adriana Banozic, Antonija Maric, Ankica Cosic, Damir Sapunar, and Livia Puljak.
• Pain Clinic, University Hospital Split, Split, Croatia.
• Int J Behav Med. 2012 Mar 1;19(1):115-9.

BackgroundParents' pain behavior is associated with the way their children experience and express pain.PurposeWe hypothesized that there is a positive association between levels of pain catastrophizing in parents and their adult children.MethodStudy included 285 participants, 100 patients, 85 spouses, and 100 adult children from 100 families. Pain catastrophizing was assessed with the Croatian version of Pain Catastrophizing Scale. Patients' pain intensity was measured with the visual analogue scale.ResultsSignificant positive correlation was found between pain catastrophizing of adult children and both of their parents. Regression analysis was conducted to test for the role of parents' pain catastrophizing scores in explaining pain catastrophizing in their adult children. The results showed that parents' pain catastrophizing scores explain results of their adult children, accounting for 20% of the variance.ConclusionThe results from the present study indicate that there is a positive association between levels of pain catastrophizing in parents and their adult children. A family may have a specific cognitive style for coping with pain, which is associated to a child's responses to pain experiences.

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