Paternal and maternal bonding styles in childhood are associated with the prevalence of chronic pain in a general adult population: the Hisayama Study

Abstract

BackgroundPrevious research has suggested that extraordinary adverse experiences during childhood, such as abuse, are possible risk factors for the development of chronic pain. However, the relationship between the perceived parental bonding style during childhood and chronic pain has been much less studied.MethodsIn this cross-sectional study, 760 community-dwelling Japanese adults were asked if they had pain that had been present for six months or more. They completed the Parental Bonding Instrument (PBI), a self-administrated questionnaire designed to assess perceived parental bonding, and the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 to assess current depressive symptoms. The PBI consists of care and overprotection subscales that are analyzed by assigning the parental bonding style to one of four quadrants: Optimal bonding (high care/low overprotection), neglectful parenting (low care/low overprotection), affectionate constraint (high care/high overprotection), and affectionless control (low care/high overprotection). Logistic regression analysis was done to estimate the contribution of the parental bonding style to the risk of chronic pain, controlling for demographic variables.ResultsCompared to the optimal bonding group, the odds ratios (ORs) for having chronic pain were significantly higher in the affectionless control group for paternal bonding (OR: 2.21, 95 % CI: 1.50-3.27) and for maternal bonding (OR: 1.60, 95 % CI: 1.09-2.36). After adjusting for depression, significance remained only for paternal bonding.ConclusionThe results demonstrate that the parental bonding style during childhood is associated with the prevalence of chronic pain in adults in the general population and that the association is more robust for paternal bonding than for maternal bonding.

Postpartum bonding: the impact of maternal depression and adult attachment style

“…Explorative mediational analysis revealed that maternal depression partially mediated the relationship between maternal dual/disorganized attachment style and selfreported bonding. It seems that dual/disorganized attachment style with concurrent depression poses a special risk constellation for the development of emotional closeness to the offspring and therefore for diverse long-term effects for child development (Anno et al 2015;Dalsant et al 2015). According to attachment theory, attachment is relatively stable and at the same time open to environmental influences (Hamilton 2000;Waters et al 2000).…”

A Broad Consideration of Risk Factors in Pediatric Chronic Pain: Where to Go from Here?

“…For children who recently experienced a surgery, reactions by parents who demonstrate more pain catastrophizing within 48–72 h after the surgery predicted greater pain intensity reports in their child 12 months later [41]. One study found that differences in parental bonding style (with the child) were related to rates of chronic pain in children [81]. In addition, the modeling of pain behaviors by parents has also been suggested as a risk factor for youth [82].…”

Defense mechanism is predicted by attachment and mediates the maladaptive influence of insecure attachment on adolescent mental health

“…Morover, insecure attachment style was associated with the number of pain sites, the degree of pain related disability but not with pain intensity. Anno et al (Anno et al 2015) showed that in a general adult populationt the prevalence of chronic pain was higher in individuals reporting affectionless parental bonding style in childhood. Mc Williams et al (McWilliams 2017) found that even after adjusting for depressive and anxiety disorders attachment insecurity was positively associated with medically unexplained chronic pain.…”