Mehar Dur-E-Nayab, Nichols Sue, Jordan Abbie, Moseley G Lorimer, Noel Melanie, Wallwork Sarah B
IIMPACT in Health, Allied Health and Human Performance, University of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia.
Education Futures, University of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia.
Eur J Pain. 2025 Sep;29(8):e70102. doi: 10.1002/ejp.70102.
Pain and injury experiences are common throughout childhood (e.g., minor injuries, vaccine injections) and provide important and frequent opportunities for children to learn about pain. Sociocultural contexts, such as reading picture books, may also provide critical opportunities for children to learn about pain/injury. This study aimed to investigate the representation of pain and injury in children's literature.
We systematically screened for pain/injury representations in children's picture books, freely available from public libraries in South Australia. A content analysis of pain/injury representations was conducted on all included books.
Two hundred and fifty-four picture books were screened until 50 books with pain/injury representations were identified. There were 63 pain (i.e., subjective experience) and 43 injury (i.e., associated with tissue damage) representations. 'Minor' pains/injuries were frequently represented (n = 69; 86%), whereas 'procedural' (e.g., vaccine injections) (n = 1; 1%) and 'chronic' pain (n = 2; 3%) were not. Gender differences were observed where boy characters experienced more pain/injury incidents (n = 42; 53%) than girl characters (n = 23; 28.8%). Behavioural responses to pain/injury also differed, with girl characters being portrayed to experience more emotional responses (e.g., crying; n = 7; 77.8%) than boy characters (n = 2; 22.2%). Other characters present during pain/injury experiences were more likely to be passive bystanders (i.e., did not respond; n = 109; 59.6%) than active responders (n = 51; 27.6%) to characters experiencing pain.
While the type of pain/injury representations in picture books seem consistent with young children's everyday pain/injury experiences (i.e., 'minor' pains/injuries), gendered stereotypes and dominant societal perspectives around pain and injury appear to be reinforced.
Shared reading of children's picture books provides an important sociocultural context for children to learn about pain and injury. In this study, we investigated how pain and injury are represented in children's picture books. We found that pain/injury incidents were consistent with young children's common pain/injury experiences; however, observing characters often lacked prosocial behaviours (e.g., helping, providing comfort) and gendered stereotypes were common. These findings have similarities to pain representations in children's popular TV/movies, speaking to the pervasiveness of these messages across children's media.
疼痛和受伤经历在整个童年时期都很常见（例如，小伤、疫苗注射），为儿童了解疼痛提供了重要且频繁的机会。社会文化背景，如图书阅读，也可能为儿童了解疼痛/受伤提供关键机会。本研究旨在调查儿童文学中疼痛和受伤的呈现方式。
我们系统筛选了南澳大利亚公共图书馆免费提供的儿童绘本中有关疼痛/受伤的呈现内容。对所有纳入书籍进行了疼痛/受伤呈现内容的分析。
共筛选了254本绘本，直至确定了50本有疼痛/受伤呈现的书籍。有63处疼痛（即主观体验）和43处受伤（即与组织损伤相关）呈现。“轻微”疼痛/受伤的呈现较为频繁（n = 69；86%），而“程序性”（如疫苗注射）（n = 1；1%）和“慢性”疼痛（n = 2；3%）则未被呈现。观察到性别差异，男孩角色经历的疼痛/受伤事件（n = 42；53%）比女孩角色（n = 23；28.8%）更多。对疼痛/受伤的行为反应也有所不同，女孩角色被描绘为比男孩角色经历更多的情绪反应（如哭泣；n = 7；77.8%）（n = 2；22.2%）。在疼痛/受伤经历中出现的其他角色更有可能是被动旁观者（即无反应；n = 109；59.6%），而不是对经历疼痛的角色做出积极反应的人（n = 51；27.6%）。
虽然绘本中疼痛/受伤呈现的类型似乎与幼儿日常的疼痛/受伤经历一致（即“轻微”疼痛/受伤），但围绕疼痛和受伤的性别刻板印象和主流社会观念似乎得到了强化。
共读儿童绘本为儿童了解疼痛和受伤提供了重要的社会文化背景。在本研究中，我们调查了疼痛和受伤在儿童绘本中的呈现方式。我们发现疼痛/受伤事件与幼儿常见的疼痛/受伤经历一致；然而，观察到的角色往往缺乏亲社会行为（如帮助、提供安慰），性别刻板印象很常见。这些发现与儿童流行电视/电影中的疼痛呈现相似，表明这些信息在儿童媒体中普遍存在。
