Department of Psychology, University of Bielefeld, Bielefeld, Germany.
Eur J Pain. 2013 Jan;17(1):124-31. doi: 10.1002/j.1532-2149.2012.00169.x. Epub 2012 Jun 19.
Laboratory studies with children and adolescents revealed inconsistent findings regarding sex differences in pain tolerance, although lower pain tolerance is commonly reported for adult women. Besides biological mechanisms, several socio-cognitive variables are discussed which may influence pain tolerance in regard to sex differences. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the pain tolerance of children and adolescents using the cold pressor task (CPT) and to analyse influences of pain-coping and pain-related self-efficacy.
About 1021 children and adolescents aged 9-17 participated in the study. Pain tolerance was defined as the length of time a participant's hand remains under water during the CPT. Two phases of pain tolerance were differentiated: the time until pain is reported (pain threshold) and the time from the threshold until the pain increases to a level resulting in the hand being withdrawn (pain endurance). Pain-coping and pain-related self-efficacy were assessed by self-report questionnaires.
We revealed an obvious effect of sex on pain threshold, which increased with age, a small effect on pain tolerance and no significant effect on endurance. Independent of sex, pain endurance was influenced by pain-related self-efficacy and positive self-instruction.
Our results support the assumption that female and male adolescents develop in different directions regarding their pain tolerance when reaching puberty. This seems mainly attributable to a decrease of pain threshold in girls. In contrast, boys and girls are able to endure pain to an equal extent influenced, however, by self-efficacy and coping variables.
针对儿童和青少年的实验室研究显示，在疼痛耐受力方面存在性别差异，但普遍认为成年女性的疼痛耐受力较低。除了生物学机制外，还有几个社会认知变量被认为可能会影响到性别差异与疼痛耐受力相关的因素。本研究的目的是使用冷水浸手实验（CPT）来测量儿童和青少年的疼痛耐受力，并分析疼痛应对和与疼痛相关的自我效能感的影响。
约 1021 名 9-17 岁的儿童和青少年参与了这项研究。疼痛耐受力定义为参与者的手在 CPT 中浸入水下的时间长度。将疼痛耐受力分为两个阶段：报告疼痛的时间（疼痛阈值）和从阈值到疼痛增加到导致手撤回的水平的时间（疼痛耐受力）。疼痛应对和与疼痛相关的自我效能感通过自我报告问卷进行评估。
我们发现性别对疼痛阈值有明显影响，疼痛阈值随年龄增长而增加，对疼痛耐受力有较小影响，对耐受力无显著影响。独立于性别，疼痛耐受力受到与疼痛相关的自我效能感和积极的自我指导的影响。
我们的研究结果支持这样一种假设，即女性和男性青少年在进入青春期时，其疼痛耐受力会朝着不同的方向发展。这似乎主要归因于女孩疼痛阈值的下降。相比之下，男孩和女孩能够以相同的程度忍受疼痛，但受自我效能感和应对变量的影响。
