Attachment dimensions and toddler's response to pain

It is important to understand how pain assessment and coping abilities are established in children so that strategies can be developed to help children manage pain more effectively. Since parents frequently interact with young children who are experiencing pain, individual differences observed in children's understanding and response to pain may by related to individual differences in attachment security. Attachment is the word used to describe the emotional bond between parents and children. Attachment behaviours are those aimed at attracting the attention of, and maintaining closeness to, the primary caregiver (e.g., parent) and serve as protective means during encounters with danger and threat, including pain. The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between attachment dimensions (e.g., secure, anxious, resistant) and child behavior following a pain incident (i.e., immunization), as well as parental responses to this pain, in a group of toddlers and their parents. This study will be conducted with 50 mothers and toddlers between the ages of 12 and 18 months. Participants will be recruited from the community. Parents and their children will be invited to the study laboratory where their attachment relationships will be evaluated. A painful procedure (e.g., child's 18 month immunization) will also be video recorded at the child's normal pediatrician clinic. Following this, parent and child behaviours during the immunization will be coded.