Parental catastrophizing about child's pain and its relationship with activity restriction: The mediating role of parental distress

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

“…For this purpose, a state measure of the original Pain Catastrophizing Scale for Parents was used [PCS-P; 36, see below]. In line with previous studies [11,37], the PCS-P-state were .62 and .53, respectively, for PCS-P-state before and the PCS-P-state after the pain task.…”

“…Research has suggested that parental pain catastrophizing (i.e., misinterpreting and exaggerating the threat value of their child's pain) and associated emotional distress may impact parental behavior in response to child pain [11,68]. 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].…”

“…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

“…In line with previous research 8,34 , a state version was developed in order to assess observers' catastrophic thoughts about the pain the observed participant could experience during the pain task. student, you will not be able to endure the task?").…”

“…To date, it is unclear how other-oriented feelings and related approach tendencies overcome initial self-oriented emotions and related avoidance. A potential key process might be the ability to regulate this self-oriented distress elicited by viewing another's pain 8,34,36 . In the present study, observers' distress is likely an automatic response to another's pain, which in later stages may be regulated by contextual and individual difference variables 32,35 , enabling other-oriented emotions to prevail 22,30,35,72,77 51 , it would be interesting to replicate the findings in participants with a close relationship, e.g.…”