title: Multiethnic differences in responses to laboratory pain stimuli among children.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  A growing body of literature suggests ethnic differences in experimental pain. However, these studies largely focus on adults and the comparison between Caucasians and African Americans. The primary aim of this study is to determine ethnic differences in laboratory-induced pain in a multiethnic child sample.
  
  
  METHODS
  Participants were 214 healthy children (mean age = 12.7, SD = 3.0 years). Ninety-eight Caucasian, 58 Hispanic, 34 African American, and 24 Asian children were exposed to four trials of pressure and radiant heat pain stimuli. Pain responses were assessed with self-report measures (i.e., pain intensity and unpleasantness) and behavioral observation (i.e., pain tolerance).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Asians demonstrated more pain sensitivity than Caucasians, who evidenced more pain sensitivity than African Americans and Hispanics. The results hold even after controlling for age, sex, SES, and experimenter's ethnicity. Asians also showed higher anticipatory anxiety compared with other ethnic groups. Anticipatory anxiety accounted for some ethnic differences in pain between Asians, Hispanics, and African Americans.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  By examining response to laboratory pain stimuli in children representing multiple ethnicities, an understudied sample, the study reveals unique findings compared to the existing literature. These findings have implications for clinicians who manage acute pain in children from diverse ethnic backgrounds. Future investigations should examine mechanisms that account for ethnic differences in pain during various developmental stages.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Houston, Houston, TX 77204-5022, USA. qlu3@uh.edu
authors.forename: Qian
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Lu
authors.forename: Lonnie
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Zeltzer
authors.forename: Jennie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Tsao
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001741:Black or African American / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D044466:Asian People / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D002648:Child; D005006:Ethnicity / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005260:Female; D006630:Hispanic or Latino / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D017288:Pain Threshold / Q000208:ethnology*; D044465:White People / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data