Grace OSullivan1, Emer Gormley1, Brian McGuire1, Michelle Roche1, Line Caes2
1) Ireland 2) United Kingdom
Paediatric research has focused primarily on pain in medical settings, rather than ‘everyday’ bumps and scratches, which are frequent experiences for pre-school-aged children. This pilot trialled two methodologies for conducting home-based observations, to examine reciprocal social influences between pre-schoolers and parents during everyday pain events.
Video-cameras recorded three hours of a typical morning or afternoon within the family home, intended to capture at least one painful experience by the child. Recordings were completed either (a)with a researcher, or (b)without a researcher present. Immediately after each pain event, the child rated their experienced level of pain using the Faces Pain Scale-Revised (FPS-R)[1]. Parents provided estimates for their child’s pain using the FPS-R, and reported their own distress using a numeric rating scale[2].
Thirteen children aged 3-5years (M: 47 months) were recorded alongside one or both parents. Thirteen pain events occurred during twelve home-visits (M: 1.08 per home). Pain events occurred twice as frequently when researchers were not present during recording. Parents reported lower estimates for their child’s pain, compared to the child’s own estimates (parental averages of ‘Mild pain’ (M:3.85); while the children gave estimates of ‘Severe’ to ‘Extreme’ pain (M:6.18)).
Observing everyday pain events without the researcher present is the most suitable methodology. Video-recordings are being coded on an ongoing basis, for parental protective or coping-promoting behaviour, and for child distress or coping behaviour during each painful event, using validated observation scales[3] and narrative coding. The findings will be presented at the meeting. A longitudinal study will investigate the social context of childhood pain experiences at intervals over a two-year period, and incorporates pre-clinical studies to examine the neurobiological processes of pain-expression in different social contexts, to reflect parent-child reactions during paediatric pain events.
We would like to acknowledge funding support from the 2015 IASP Early Career Research grant and the Hardiman Scholarship Fund.
