Parental (non-)pain-attending verbalizations moderating the impact of a pain educational video intervention upon child pain-related memory.

INTRODUCTION: Children’s memories of pain contribute to fear, and may underlie the maintenance and/or development of chronic pain into adulthood. Therefore, understanding determinants that may play a role in children’s pain memory development is essential. This study investigated the impact of a pain educational video intervention in healthy children before undergoing an experimental pain task upon children’s pain-related memory and the moderating role of parents’ (non-)pain-attending verbalizations.
METHODS: Seventy-seven children (8-15 years old) were randomly assigned to the experimental group (i.e., pain educational video) or control group (i.e., no video). Parent-child interactions prior to and after the pain task were videotaped, allowing coding of parents’ (non-)pain-attending verbalizations. Children’s pain-related memories were elicited two weeks later.
RESULTS: Recalled pain intensity (but not recalled pain-related fear) of children in the experimental group was significantly lower compared to the control group (p=.028). Further, parental pain-attending verbalizations prior to the pain task moderated the impact of the video intervention upon children’s recalled pain-intensity (p=.038). Particularly, children in the control group whose parents used less pain-attending verbalizations reported higher recalled pain intensity, whereas children whose parents used more pain-attending verbalizations reported lower recalled pain intensity. Children in the experimental group seemed to be unaffected by their parents’ pain-attending verbalizations.
CONCLUSIONS: Children’s memories of pain are key in pain assessment, pain management, and the transition of acute to chronic pain, hence findings of this study might have important implications for the maintenance and/or development of maladaptive pain-related behavior in children.