• Alyssa N Van Denburg, Rebecca A Shelby, David S Caldwell, Madeline L O'Sullivan, and Francis J Keefe.
• Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina. Electronic address: alyssa.van.denburg@duke.edu.
• J Pain. 2018 Sep 1; 19 (9): 1006-1014.

AbstractPain catastrophizing (ie, the tendency to focus on and magnify pain sensations and feel helpless in the face of pain) is one of the most important and consistent psychological predictors of the pain experience. The present study examined, in 60 patients with osteoarthritis pain who were married or partnered: 1) the degree to which ambivalence over emotional expression and negative network orientation were associated with pain catastrophizing, and 2) whether self-efficacy for pain communication moderated these relations. Hierarchical multiple linear regression analyses revealed a significant main effect for the association between ambivalence over emotional expression and pain catastrophizing; as ambivalence over emotional expression increased, the degree of pain catastrophizing increased. In addition, the interaction between ambivalence over emotional expression and self-efficacy for pain communication was significant, such that as self-efficacy for pain communication increased, the association between ambivalence over emotional expression and pain catastrophizing became weaker. Negative network orientation was not significantly associated with pain catastrophizing. Findings suggest that higher levels of self-efficacy for pain communication may help weaken the effects of ambivalence over emotional expression on pain catastrophizing. In light of these results, patients may benefit from interventions that target pain communication processes and emotion regulation.Copyright © 2018 The American Pain Society. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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