Children's Memory for Pain

What children remember about painful experiences (e.g., immunizations) has important implications for how well they cope with future medical procedures. Children's memories of painful procedures can persist into adulthood and lead individuals to avoid medical care. Children who have exaggerated negative memories of painful procedures tend to be more distressed at later procedures than children who have accurate memories. Children who report more pain during medical procedures tend to develop these exaggerated memories. Research has not yet examined individual factors that might also play a role in the development of exaggerated pain memories. The proposed study will examine the role that individual factors play in the development of exaggerated pain memories. One hundred healthy children between the ages of 8-12 years will complete questionnaires and computer-based tasks that measure individual factors (e.g., anxiety sensitivity, pain catastrophizing, hypervigilance to pain cues). Children will undergo a commonly used, lab-based experimental manipulation of mild to moderate pain in which their arm is submerged in cold water (10 degrees Celsius). Children will then complete measures of pain intensity and pain anxiety both immediately and 2 weeks following the pain task. This research has important implications for children's coping and distress during painful medical procedures and for their health as adults. The results of this study could be used to develop interventions that would reduce children's pain and distress during painful medical procedures and therefore improve their health into adulthood.