title: Social modulation of facial pain display in high-catastrophizing children: an observational study in schoolchildren and their parents.
abstract: The present study examined existing communal and operant accounts of children's pain behavior by looking at the impact of parental presence and parental attention upon children's pain expression as a function of child pain catastrophizing. Participants were 38 school children and 1 of their parents. Children completed a cold pressor pain task (CPT) twice, first when told that no one was observing (alone condition) and subsequently when told that they were being observed by their parent (parent-present condition). A 3-minute parent-child interaction occurred between the 2 CPT immersions, allowing measurement of parental attention to their child's pain (ie, parental pain-attending talk vs non-pain-attending talk). Findings showed that child pain catastrophizing moderated the impact of parental presence upon facial displays of pain. Specifically, low-catastrophizing children expressed more pain in the presence of their parent, whereas high-catastrophizing children showed equally pronounced pain expression when alone or in the presence of a parent. Furthermore, children's catastrophizing moderated the impact of parental attention upon facial displays and self-reports of pain; higher levels of parental nonpain talk were associated with increased facial expression and self-reports of pain among high-catastrophizing children; for low-catastrophizing children, facial and self-report of pain was independent of parental attention to pain. The findings are discussed in terms of possible mechanisms that may drive and maintain pain expression in high-catastrophizing children, as well as potential limitations of traditional theories in explaining pediatric pain expression.
authors: Department of Experimental-Clinical and Health Psychology, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium Department of Psychology, Medicine and Neurology, McGill University, Montréal, Quebec, Canada.
authors: Tine
authors: T
authors: Vervoort
authors: Line
authors: L
authors: Caes
authors: Zina
authors: Z
authors: Trost
authors: Michael
authors: M
authors: Sullivan
authors: Karoline
authors: K
authors: Vangronsveld
authors: Liesbet
authors: L
authors: Goubert
mesh_terms: D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001288:Attention; D058443:Catastrophization; D003080:Cold Temperature / Q000009:adverse effects; D005157:Facial Pain / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D019370:Observation; D010147:Pain Measurement / Q000379:methods; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D010290:Parents / Q000523:psychology*; D011312:Pressure / Q000009:adverse effects; D012044:Regression Analysis; D057566:Self Report