Parental catastrophizing about their child’s pain. The parent version of the Pain Catastrophizing Scale (PCS-P): A preliminary validation

Abstract

Numerous studies have found evidence for the role of catastrophizing about pain in adjustment to pain in both adults and children. However, the social context influencing pain and pain behaviour has been largely ignored. Especially in understanding the complexities of childhood pain, family processes may be of major importance. In line with the crucial role of pain catastrophizing in explaining adjustment and disability in adults and children, this study investigates the role of parental catastrophic thinking about their child's pain in explaining child disability and parental distress. To study parental catastrophizing, a parent version of the Pain Catastrophizing Scale (PCS-P) was developed. An oblique three-factor structure emerged to best fit the data in both a sample of parents of schoolchildren (N=205) and in a sample of parents of children with chronic pain (N=107). Moreover, this three-factor structure was found to be invariant across both parent samples. Further, in the clinical sample, parents' catastrophic thinking about their child's pain had a significant contribution in explaining (a) childhood illness-related parenting stress, parental depression and anxiety, and (b) the child's disability and school attendance, beyond the child's pain intensity.

Impact of parental catastrophizing and contextual threat on parents’ emotional and behavioral responses to their child’s pain

“…In terms of parental distress, the present findings suggest that contextual threat may play a more important role than the overall tendency of parents to endorse catastrophic thought about child pain. At first sight, these findings stand in contrast with prior research highlighting pain catastrophizing as an important construct in understanding parental responses [36,39]. However, our findings corroborate recent evidence 20" " showing that the specific level of threat persons attach to a situation has higher predictive value in explaining their response to pain than their general tendency to interpret pain as threatening (i.e., catastrophizing) [11,12].…”

“…The PCS-P yields a total score that can range from 0 to 52, and three subscale scores for rumination, magnification and helplessness. The PCS-P has been shown to be reliable and valid [36]. The Cronbach's alpha in this study was α = .89.…”

“…Specifically, high catastrophizing parents are more likely to experience elevated distress when faced with their child in pain [11,36,39] and are more inclined to engage in pain-attending behaviors [11,68]. However, research on how heightened parental catastrophizing translates into parental distress and specific behavior towards child pain is currently limited to self-report studies, which may not be a valid index of actual parental responses [18].…”

Negative Emotional Responses Elicited by the Anticipation of Pain in Others: Psychophysiological Evidence

“…Specifically, individuals catastrophizing about their pain report more pain and distress 68,70 . Likewise, observers catastrophizing about other's pain seem to experience another's painful situation as more distressing 33,36,52 . Other individual difference variables may reduce fear and distress.…”

Child's and Parents' Catastrophizing about Pain is Associated with Procedural Fear in Children: A Study in Children with Diabetes and Their Mothers

“…Furthermore, evidence in parents of school children has also shown that parents with high levels of catastrophizing are more likely to infer higher levels of pain in their child (Goubert, Vervoort, Cano, & Crombez, 2009), and more likely to be distressed or fearful about their child's pain (Caes, Vervoort, Eccleston, & Goubert, 2011;Goubert, Vervoort, Sullivan, Verhoeven, & Crombez, 2008). Accordingly, it is reasonable to assume that parents' catastrophizing about their child's pain, by means of associated behavioural parental responses, might also promote fear and pain in their child (Goubert, Eccleston, Vervoort, Jordan, & Crombez, 2006). To date, evidence on the impact of parents' catastrophizing upon the child's response to pain is limited.…”