Coping with chronic pain: In‐depth interviews with children suffering from Juvenile Chronic Arthritis

Abstract

This study examined from the perspective of children with Juvenile Chronic Arthritis, their experiences of coping with chronic pain in daily life. In-depth interviews were conducted with 22 children (6-17 years). The grounded theory method was applied for analysing the taped and transcribed interviews. Seven descriptive categories were grounded in the data, labelled (1) "controlling strategies", (2) "avoidance strategies", (3) "cognitive strategies", (4) "compliance with the treatment", (5) "seeking social support", and (6) "recovering". A core category was identified and labelled "making me different". The children seem to be caught in a dilemma. In one way the chosen coping strategy reduces chronic pain and in another way the strategy increases stress and feelings of being different from non-disabled peers. Our results indicate the great importance of social support from the children's environment.

Oscillating between hope and despair — a qualitative study

“…This might affect their developmental process. Our study focused on chronic pain as disturbed order and, in line with a recent study by Sällfors et al . (2001), the pain affected children suffering from JCA negatively and made them different from the norm.…”

“…The background to our study was the clinical impression that children's body language shows something more about the pain experience than what parents and healthcare professionals are told. A recent qualitative study by Sällfors et al . (2001) indicated that not only the pain and the chronic disease but also coping strategies used to reduce pain affect these children negatively and made them different from their healthy peers.…”

Fitting into the prevailing teenage culture: A grounded theory on female adolescents with chronic arthritis

“…Ungerer and colleagues (1988) have pointed out the social consequences of arthritis for teenagers, compared with younger children. The results of our earlier studies clarify that those children's (6Á17 years) interpersonal relations are negatively affected by pain associated with chronic arthritis (Sällfors et al, 2001(Sällfors et al, , 2002. In addition to increasing developmental challenges, pain and illness create additional challenges related to coping for teenage girls with chronic arthritis.…”

“…Pain and illness are experienced as endless and unpredictable and result in limited participation in daily life, as previously described by Sällfors et al (2001Sällfors et al ( , 2003. Compared with results of earlier studies (Sällfors et al, 2001(Sällfors et al, , 2003, where even younger boys and girls participated, the female participants in the present study have developed more effective coping strategies as being active and well-educated consumers. In addition, the teenage girls have achieved a greater maturity concerning making decisions related to treatment and therapy processes than their peers.…”

“…Pain related to childhood arthritis is regarded as chronic or recurrent (Benestad, Vinje, Veierö d & Vandvik, 1996) and has significant adverse effects on children and their families. Children with arthritis have to deal with a severe illness that affects the health status negatively (Schanberg, Lefebvre, Keefe, Kredisch & Gil, 1997) and controls their daily lives, resulting in restricted participation and limited activity (Sällfors, Hallberg & Fasth, 2001). Ungerer, Chaitow and Champion (1988) found that the social consequences of arthritis increase for young adults as compared with younger children.…”