• Catherine Cant Peterson and Tonya Mizell Palermo.
• Department of Pediatrics, Rainbow Babies and Children's Hospital, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, Cleveland, OH 44106, USA. catherine.cant@cwru.edu
• J Pediatr Psychol. 2004 Jul 1;29(5):331-41.

ObjectiveTo examine whether children's distress moderates the relationship between parental responses to children's pain behaviors and functional disability.MethodsParticipants were 215 children (ages 8 to 16 years) diagnosed with either headaches, juvenile idiopathic arthritis, or sickle cell disease. Children and parents completed questionnaires assessing sociodemographics, pain, depression, anxiety, parental solicitous responses to pain behaviors, and functional disability.ResultsHierarchical linear regressions computed for parental responses to children's pain significantly predicted child functional disability, controlling for children's pain intensity. Significant interactions between parental solicitous behaviors and child depressive symptoms (beta =.74, p <.01) and between solicitous behaviors and child anxiety symptoms (beta =.91, p <.01) indicated that for children with more psychological distress, parental solicitous behaviors were associated with greater child functional disability.ConclusionsChild psychological distress may exacerbate the impact of parental solicitous responses to pain on functioning, suggesting the potential role of family intervention to enhance optimal functioning in children with recurrent pain.

19 keywords...

hide…