Children's health care : journal of the Association for the Care of Children's Health
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This study investigated whether catastrophic thinking about pain by children with functional abdominal pain or by their parents is associated with health outcomes in the child. Subjects were 132 parent-child dyads. Child catastrophizing predicted child depression, anxiety and functional disability. ⋯ Protectiveness, in turn, predicted child functional disability. All findings held despite controlling for child age, gender, and symptom severity. These results suggest that catastrophic cognitions play an important role in how children and parents cope and respond to functional abdominal pain, and may have implications for assessment and treatment in the clinical setting.