Validation of a measure of protective parent responses to children's pain.
OBJECTIVE
To assess the validity of the Protect Scale of the Adult Responses to Children's Symptoms (ARCS) Questionnaire with regard to mothers' responses to their children's abdominal pain.


METHODS
Mothers with High (n=32) and Low (n=35) Protect scores on the ARCS questionnaire were recruited from participants in a larger study of family illness behavior. Mothers completed a 28-day diary report of responses to their children's abdominal pain episodes. Records of their children's annual health service utilization and costs were obtained from their health maintenance organization (HMO).


RESULTS
Mothers' scores on the ARCS Protect Scale were significantly correlated with their subsequent diary reports of protective responses to their children's abdominal pain. Compared to children of mothers in the Low Protect group, children of mothers in the High Protect group made significantly more health care visits for gastrointestinal symptoms and had significantly higher health care costs.


CONCLUSIONS
Results supported the validity of the Protect Scale of the ARCS and demonstrated that mothers' protective responses to children's abdominal pain complaints at home predicted subsequent health service use for gastrointestinal symptoms.
Walker
Lynn S
LS
Department of Pediatrics, Vanderbilt Medical Center University of Washington, USA. lynn.walker@vanderbilt.edu
Levy
Rona L
RL
Whitehead
William E
WE
D015746:Abdominal Pain / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology*; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008425:Maternal Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D009034:Mother-Child Relations; D009035:Mothers / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011594:Psychometrics / Q000379:methods*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology