Department of Anesthesiology, Perioperative and Pain Medicine, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA, USA.
Department of Psychology, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI, USA.
Eur J Pain. 2020 Oct;24(9):1775-1784. doi: 10.1002/ejp.1625. Epub 2020 Jul 20.
Emotional approach coping (EAC) is a potentially adaptive emotion-focused coping style that involves understanding or processing one's emotions and expressing them appropriately. Although EAC has been studied in various populations, little is known about this construct among people with chronic pain, including potential mediators such as negative affect, which might link EAC to pain-related variables, and moderators of these relationships.
Participants (N = 670; 76% women; 30% older adults-age 60 or over) with chronic pain completed online the Emotional Approach Coping Scale and measures of pain severity, pain interference and negative affect. Analyses correlated EAC to pain severity and interference and tested whether gender and age group (older adults versus young/middle-age adults) moderated the mediated relationships of EAC with pain-related variables through negative affect.
Findings reveal that higher EAC was associated with lower pain intensity through lower negative affect in the young/middle-age portion of the sample, but not older adults. Also, higher EAC was associated with lower pain interference through lower negative affect among women in the sample, but not men. The associations of EAC to pain intensity and interference are small in magnitude, however, and should be considered preliminary.
EAC is associated with lower pain intensity in young/middle-age adults and lower pain interference in women, and lower negative affect mediates these relationships. These results suggest the potential value of assessing and bolstering emotional approach coping processes in some people with chronic pain.
情感趋近应对（EAC）是一种潜在的适应性情绪聚焦应对方式，涉及理解或处理自己的情绪并适当地表达出来。尽管 EAC 在各种人群中都有研究，但在慢性疼痛人群中，对于这一结构的了解甚少，包括潜在的中介因素，如负性情绪，它可能将 EAC 与疼痛相关变量联系起来，以及这些关系的调节因素。
有慢性疼痛的参与者（N=670；76%为女性；30%为老年人，即 60 岁或以上）在线完成了《情感趋近应对量表》以及疼痛严重程度、疼痛干扰和负性情绪的测量。分析将 EAC 与疼痛严重程度和干扰相关联，并检验性别和年龄组（老年人与年轻/中年成年人）是否通过负性情绪调节 EAC 与疼痛相关变量的中介关系。
研究结果表明，在年轻/中年组中，较高的 EAC 通过较低的负性情绪与较低的疼痛强度相关，而在老年人中则没有这种相关性。此外，在女性样本中，较高的 EAC 通过较低的负性情绪与较低的疼痛干扰相关，而在男性中则没有这种相关性。然而，EAC 与疼痛强度和干扰的关联幅度较小，应被视为初步结果。
EAC 与年轻/中年成年人的疼痛强度降低以及女性的疼痛干扰降低相关，较低的负性情绪中介了这些关系。这些结果表明，在一些慢性疼痛患者中评估和增强情感趋近应对过程具有潜在价值。
