Parental catastrophizing partially mediates the association between parent-reported child pain behavior and parental protective responses

Shelby L. Langer, Joan M. Romano, Lloyd Mancl, Rona L. Levy

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

37 Scopus citations

Abstract

This study sought to model and test the role of parental catastrophizing in relationship to parent-reported child pain behavior and parental protective (solicitous) responses to child pain in a sample of children with Inflammatory Bowel Disease and their parents (n = 184 dyads). Parents completed measures designed to assess cognitions about and responses to their child's abdominal pain. They also rated their child's pain behavior. Mediation analyses were performed using regression-based techniques and bootstrapping. Results supported a model treating parent-reported child pain behavior as the predictor, parental catastrophizing as the mediator, and parental protective responses as the outcome. Parent-reported child pain behavior predicted parental protective responses and this association was mediated by parental catastrophizing about child pain: indirect effect (SE) = 2.08 (0.56); 95% CI = 1.09, 3.30. The proportion of the total effect mediated was 68%. Findings suggest that interventions designed to modify maladaptive parental responses to children's pain behaviors should assess, as well as target, parental catastrophizing cognitions about their child's pain.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number751097
JournalPain Research and Treatment
Volume2014
DOIs
StatePublished - 2014
Externally publishedYes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Clinical Neurology
  • Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine

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