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Associations between parent and child pain and functioning in a pediatric chronic pain sample: a mixed methods approach

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Published/Copyright: November 1, 2010
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International Journal on Disability and Human Development
From the journal Volume 9 Issue 1

Abstract

This study employed a mixed-method design to test sex-specific parent-child pain associations. Subjects were 179 chronic pain patients aged 11–19 years (mean=14.34; 72% female) presenting for treatment at a multidisciplinary, tertiary clinic. Mothers and children completed questionnaires before their clinic visit, including measures of children's pain, functioning and psychological characteristics. Mothers also reported on their own pain and psychological functioning. Interviews were conducted with a sub-sample of 34 mothers and children before the clinic visit and analyzed using a grounded theory approach. The quantitative data suggest stronger mother-daughter than mother-son pain relationships. The qualitative data suggest that girls' pain and pain-related disability is related to an overly enmeshed mother-daughter relationship and the presence of maternal models of pain, whereas boys' pain and disability is linked to male pain models and criticism and to maternal worry and solicitousness. Boys and girls appear to have developmentally incongruous levels of autonomy and conformity to maternal expectations. The mixed-method data suggest distinct trajectories through which mother and father involvement might be linked to chronic pain in adolescent boys and girls.

Keywords: chronic pain; parent-child relationships; sex differences
Corresponding author: Subhadra Evans, PhD, Pediatric Pain Program, Department of Pediatrics, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, MDCC 22-464, 10833 Le Conte Ave., CA 90024, USA Phone: +1-310-794-2936, Fax: +1-310-794-2954,
Received: 2009-11-20
Accepted: 2009-12-30
Published Online: 2010-11-01
Published in Print: 2010-11-01

©2010 by Walter de Gruyter Berlin New York

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https://doi.org/10.1515/IJDHD.2010.003
Keywords for this article
chronic pain; parent-child relationships; sex differences

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Editorial
  2. New directions for disability and human development
  3. Review
  4. Psychiatric manifestations of latent toxoplasmosis. Potential mediation by indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase
  5. Original Articles
  6. Associations between parent and child pain and functioning in a pediatric chronic pain sample: a mixed methods approach
  7. Health service utilization in patients with major depressive disorder experiencing significant somatic symptoms in Korea
  8. Movement skills in persons with Down syndrome decrease with aging
  9. Development of a community-specific health promotion plan to improve children's health in rural Guatemala
  10. No impact of gonadal steroid levels on the association between C-reactive protein and prepartum depression scores
  11. Pulmonary capillary wedge pressure estimation by Doppler echocardiography and cardiac catheterization: a study at a tertiary level hospital in Bangladesh
  12. National survey 2008 on medical services for persons with intellectual disability in residential care in Israel
  13. A longitudinal analysis of poverty among families supporting a child with a disability
  14. Case Reports
  15. Benign myelomalacia mimicking malignant spinal cord compression in a patient with metastatic non-small cell lung carcinoma: a case report
  16. A patient with the Fregoli syndrome: a case report and discussion of the relevant literature
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