The present study produced an empirically derived, developmental continuum of children's understanding of specific pains. Subjects of 5 age groups: preschool (ages 3-4), first grade (ages 6-7), third grade (ages 8-10), sixth grade (ages 11-12) and college freshmen (ages 18-23) were interviewed with open-ended questions. The subjects were questioned extensively about 3 specific types of pain: an injury (skinned knee), a medical intervention (injection), and an illness (headache). Subjects were asked to describe each pain, tell why the pain hurt, and state the value of the pain. Their answers were then categorized and the categories ordered developmentally by experts in pediatric pain who were unaware of the children's ages. Then children's specific answers were given developmental scores. Multivariate analyses revealed that older children had more complex and precise understandings of pain, and this pattern differed by type of pain and by aspect of pain being considered. The subjects were also asked to report the frequency of their own pains and their parents' pain; parental and self-reported pains were closely related.

Although attention has recently been focused on understanding and preventing children's injuries, much controversy exists over the best data collection methods for examining child injuries. This study examined three methodological issues relevant to childhood injury data collection including the length of time children and parents can be expected to meaningfully recall injuries, whether the parent or child is a preferred informant about the injury, and the potential use of near injuries as a proxy measure for actual child injuries. Both children and their mothers were individually interviewed every 2 weeks for a total of 6 months about both injuries and near injuries. In addition, at the end of the 6-month period, they were asked to recall all injuries that occurred during those 6 months. Overall, children reported more injuries than mothers. Children recalled far fewer and mothers recalled slightly fewer events than had been reported in the biweekly interviews. There were fewer near injury than actual injury events reported, although this varied across categories, with some categories (e.g., car passenger injuries) having more near than actual injuries, and other categories (e.g., cuts, bumps, and bruises) having many more actual than near injuries reported. Limitations of the project are discussed and implications for future research advanced.

The present study produced an empirically derived, developmental continuum of children's understanding of specific pains. Subjects of 5 age groups: preschool (ages 3-4), first grade (ages 6-7), third grade (ages 8-10), sixth grade (ages 11-12) and college freshmen (ages 18-23) were interviewed with open-ended questions. The subjects were questioned extensively about 3 specific types of pain: an injury (skinned knee), a medical intervention (injection), and an illness (headache). Subjects were asked to describe each pain, tell why the pain hurt, and state the value of the pain. Their answers were then categorized and the categories ordered developmentally by experts in pediatric pain who were unaware of the children's ages. Then children's specific answers were given developmental scores. Multivariate analyses revealed that older children had more complex and precise understandings of pain, and this pattern differed by type of pain and by aspect of pain being considered. The subjects were also asked to report the frequency of their own pains and their parents' pain; parental and self-reported pains were closely related.

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