Department of Experimental-Clinical and Health Psychology, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium Centre for Pain Research, The University of Bath, Bath, UK.
Pain. 2012 Aug;153(8):1695-1701. doi: 10.1016/j.pain.2012.04.028. Epub 2012 May 31.
How parents respond to their child in pain is critically important to how both parent and child attempt to cope with pain. We examined the influence of parental catastrophic thinking about child pain on their prioritization for pain control. Using a vignette methodology, parents reported, in response to different pain scenarios, on their imagined motivation for 2 competing goals: to control their child's pain (ie, pain control) or to encourage their child's participation in daily activities (ie, activity engagement). The effects of parent gender, pain intensity, and duration on parental goal priority were also explored. Findings indicated that higher levels of parental catastrophic thoughts were associated with the parents prioritizing child pain control over activity engagement. This effect was significantly moderated by pain duration. Specifically, pain control was more of a priority for those high in catastrophic thinking when the pain was more acute. In contrast, parental catastrophic thoughts had no effect on the pain control strategy favored by parents in situations with longer-lasting pain. Furthermore, independently of parental catastrophic thoughts, heightened priority for pain control was observed in highly intense and chronic pain situations. Moreover, in highly intense pain, priority for pain control was stronger for mothers compared with fathers. Theoretical and clinical implications and directions for future research are discussed.
父母对孩子疼痛的反应方式对父母和孩子尝试应对疼痛的方式至关重要。我们研究了父母对孩子疼痛的灾难性思维对他们优先考虑疼痛控制的影响。使用情境方法，父母根据不同的疼痛情境，报告了他们对 2 个竞争目标的想象动机：控制孩子的疼痛（即疼痛控制）或鼓励孩子参与日常活动（即活动参与）。还探讨了父母性别、疼痛强度和持续时间对父母目标优先级的影响。研究结果表明，父母的灾难性思维水平越高，他们越倾向于优先考虑孩子的疼痛控制而不是活动参与。这种影响受到疼痛持续时间的显著调节。具体来说，当疼痛更剧烈时，高灾难性思维的父母更倾向于优先控制疼痛。相比之下，在疼痛持续时间较长的情况下，父母的灾难性思维对他们偏好的疼痛控制策略没有影响。此外，无论父母的灾难性思维如何，在高度剧烈和慢性疼痛的情况下，父母都更倾向于优先控制疼痛。此外，在高度剧烈的疼痛中，母亲比父亲更倾向于优先控制疼痛。讨论了理论和临床意义以及未来研究的方向。
