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. 2016 Jun 20;3(2):10.
doi: 10.3390/children3020010.

Maternal Anxiety and Children's Laboratory Pain: The Mediating Role of Solicitousness

Subhadra Evans  1 , Laura A Payne  2 , Laura Seidman  3 , Kirsten Lung  4 , Lonnie Zeltzer  5 , Jennie C I Tsao  6
Affiliations

Maternal Anxiety and Children's Laboratory Pain: The Mediating Role of Solicitousness

Subhadra Evans et al. Children (Basel). .

Abstract

There has been limited empirical examination of how parent variables such as anxiety and solicitousness collectively impact child pain response. We sought to examine the relationships among maternal anxiety, solicitous parenting, and children's laboratory anxiety and pain intensity in children with chronic pain. Participants included 80 children and adolescents (ages 8-18) with chronic pain and their mothers. Children completed questionnaires and lab pain tasks measuring their parents' solicitous parenting, pressure, cold and heat pain anticipatory anxiety and pain intensity. Using bootstrapping analysis, maternal anxiety predicted child anticipatory anxiety and pain intensity in girls with chronic pain, which was mediated by the child's report of parental solicitousness. For boys with chronic pain, maternal anxiety predicted boys' anticipatory anxiety and pain intensity, with no support for mediation. This study adds to the growing literature demonstrating the impact of maternal anxiety on children's pain. The study highlights the importance of considering parents in treatment designed to reduce children's pain.

Keywords: anxiety; children; chronic pain; parenting.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Conceptual model of maternal anxiety, responses to child pain, and dependent child laboratory pain variables.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Mediating role of solicitousness in the relation of maternal anxiety with lab anticipatory anxiety for girls with chronic pain. Estimates of total effect of maternal anxiety on girls’ pain outcomes are presented in brackets, with values representing estimates of the total indirect effect of maternal anxiety on girls’ pain outcomes through maternal solicitousness presented below.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Mediating role of solicitousness in the relation of maternal anxiety with girls’ lab pain intensity. Estimates of total effect of maternal anxiety on girls’ pain outcomes are presented in brackets, with values representing estimates of the total indirect effect of maternal anxiety on girls’ pain outcomes through maternal solicitousness presented below.
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