title: Preliminary validation of a self-efficacy scale for child functioning despite chronic pain (child and parent versions).
abstract: Despite frequent targeting of health beliefs in pediatric chronic pain treatment interventions, there are currently no reliable and valid self-efficacy measures for children with chronic pain and their parents. The current study examined the psychometric properties of parent and child versions of a self-efficacy measure related to the child functioning normally when in pain. Pediatric pain patients, 9-18 years of age, and a caregiver completed questionnaires before an initial tertiary care clinic appointment. The 67 patients in our sample had an average of 1.7 pain locations, including abdominal pain (43.3%), headaches (50.7%), body pain (25.4%), back pain (23.9%), limb pain (20.9%), and/or chest pain (9.0%). Reliability for the new measures was excellent; the Cronbach's alpha was .89 for the 7 child items and .90 for the 7 parent items. Strong evidence for construct validity was also obtained as 23 of the 27 hypothesized correlations were confirmed. As predicted, parent and child ratings of increased self-efficacy for the child functioning normally when in pain were significantly correlated with each other, and to parent reports of fewer problems functioning due to physical or emotional problems; parent reports of fewer somatic, behavioral or emotional symptoms; parent reports of increased self-esteem, and unrelated to child pain, age and gender. Additionally, child ratings of increased self-efficacy were significantly correlated with child reports of increased self-esteem and fewer somatic symptoms. Replication with a larger sample size, more complex modeling, and prospective studies are indicated.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, Division of Child Psychiatry, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, Los Angeles, CA, USA. bbursch@mednet.ucla.edu
authors.forename: Brenda
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Bursch
authors.forename: Jennie C I
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Tsao
authors.forename: Marcia
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Meldrum
authors.forename: Lonnie K
authors.initials: LK
authors.lastname: Zeltzer
mesh_terms: D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010146:Pain / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology*; D010147:Pain Measurement / Q000379:methods*; D010290:Parents; D010865:Pilot Projects; D011594:Psychometrics / Q000379:methods; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D020377:Self Efficacy; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires