Pediatric Chronic Pain and its Impact on Mothers and Fathers

It is estimated that as many as 1 in 5 children suffer from chronic pain. Not only can chronic pain impact the health and wellbeing of the child who is affected, but it also has the potential to impact the child's parents and family. The majority of research has focused on the impact that a child's chronic pain has on mothers and has found that they are more likely to report poor mental and physical health, negative social impact, and disrupted family functioning. While it is known that fathers also play an important role in their child's chronic pain the impact that they may experience has been largely overlooked. This study will take advantage of self-report and experimental pain methods to assess the impact of children's chronic pain on both mothers and fathers. After both parents complete questions on the impacts of having a child with chronic pain their child will complete the cold pressor task (children place their hand in a bath of cold water for as long as they can, up to 4 minutes). Parents will watch and report on the impact of seeing their child in pain. We expect that mothers and fathers will both experience negative impact as a result of their child's pain but that mothers will be affected to a greater degree. We also expect that child characteristics (e.g., sex, age) will predict the impact experienced by the parents. Given that chronic pain affects approximately 20% of Canadian youth this work has implications for many families. We know that both parents play important roles in their child's development and in the functioning of a family. Thus, in order to fully characterize the relationship between a child's chronic pain and any dysfunctional parental and family processes, investigation of the impact on both parents is necessary. Having knowledge on the impact of a child's chronic pain will allow for the development of prevention and intervention programs, which in turn, can optimize a child's pain management and the health of the family as a whole.