Department of Experimental-Clinical and Health Psychology, Ghent University, Belgium Department of Psychology, McGill University, Montréal, Québec, Canada.
Pain. 2012 Mar;153(3):687-695. doi: 10.1016/j.pain.2011.12.007. Epub 2012 Jan 23.
Limited research has addressed processes underlying parents' empathic responses to their child's pain. The present study investigated the effects of parental catastrophizing, threatening information about the child's pain, and child pain expression upon parental emotional and behavioral responses to their child's pain. A total of 56 school children participated in a heat pain task consisting of 48 trials while being observed by 1 of their parents. Trials were preceded by a blue or yellow circle, signaling possible pain stimulation (i.e., pain signal) or no pain stimulation (i.e., safety signal). Parents received either neutral or threatening information regarding the heat stimulus. Parents' negative emotional responses when anticipating their child's pain were assessed using psychophysiological measures- i.e., fear-potentiated startle and corrugator EMG activity. Parental behavioral response to their child's pain (i.e., pain attending talk) was assessed during a 3-minute parent-child interaction that followed the pain task. The Child Facial Coding System (CFCS) was used to assess children's facial pain expression during the pain task. Results indicated that receiving threatening information was associated with a stronger parental corrugator EMG activity during pain signals in comparison with safety signals. The same pattern was found for parental fear-potentiated startle reflex, particularly when the child's facial pain expression was high. In addition, parents who reported high levels of catastrophizing thought about their child's pain engaged, in comparison with low-catastrophizing parents, in more pain-attending talk when they received threatening information. The findings are discussed in the context of affective-motivational theories of pain.
针对父母对孩子疼痛的共情反应背后的过程，目前的研究还很有限。本研究调查了父母的灾难化、关于孩子疼痛的威胁信息以及孩子的疼痛表达对父母对孩子疼痛的情绪和行为反应的影响。共有 56 名学龄儿童在被 1 名家长观察的情况下参加了一个热痛任务，该任务包括 48 个试验。试验前有一个蓝色或黄色的圆圈，分别表示可能的疼痛刺激（即疼痛信号）或无疼痛刺激（即安全信号）。父母收到了关于热刺激的中性或威胁信息。使用生理心理测量方法（即恐惧增强的惊吓和皱眉肌 EMG 活动）评估父母在预期孩子疼痛时的负面情绪反应。在疼痛任务结束后的 3 分钟亲子互动期间，评估父母对孩子疼痛的行为反应（即关注疼痛的谈话）。在疼痛任务期间，使用儿童面部编码系统（CFCS）评估儿童的面部疼痛表情。结果表明，与安全信号相比，收到威胁信息与疼痛信号期间父母的皱眉肌 EMG 活动增强有关。对于父母的惊吓增强反射也是如此，尤其是当孩子的面部疼痛表情较高时。此外，与低灾难化父母相比，报告高水平灾难化的父母在收到威胁信息时，会进行更多的关注疼痛的谈话。研究结果在疼痛的情感动机理论背景下进行了讨论。
