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. 2022 Jan 12;7(1):e982.
doi: 10.1097/PR9.0000000000000982. eCollection 2022 Jan-Feb.

The Pain Coping Questionnaire short-form: preliminary reliability and validity

Sara Ahola Kohut  1   2   3 , Jennifer Stinson  3   4   5 , Christine T Chambers  6 , Graham J Reid  7 , Rebecca R Pillai Riddell  8   9
Affiliations

The Pain Coping Questionnaire short-form: preliminary reliability and validity

Sara Ahola Kohut et al. Pain Rep. .

Abstract

Introduction: The Pain Coping Questionnaire (PCQ) has support for its validity and reliability as a tool to understand how a child copes with pain of an extended duration. However, measure length may limit feasibility in clinical settings.

Objectives: The primary goal of this study was to develop a short-form (PCQ-SF) that could be used for screening how children cope with chronic or recurrent pain and examine its reliability and validity.

Methods: The PCQ-SF was developed in a stepwise manner. First, a confirmatory factor analysis was computed using an amalgamated data set from the validation studies of the PCQ (N = 1225). Next, ratings from researchers and clinicians were obtained on PCQ item content and clarity (n = 12). Finally, the resulting 16-item short-form was tested in a pediatric sample living with chronic and recurrent pain (65 parent-child dyads; n = 128).

Results: The PCQ-SF has acceptable preliminary reliability and validity. Both statistical and expert analyses support the collective use of the 16 items as an alternative to the full measure.

Conclusions: The compact format of the PCQ-SF will allow practitioners in high-volume clinical environments to quickly determine a child's areas of strengths and weaknesses when coping with pain. Future research using larger more diverse samples to confirm clinical validity is warranted.

Keywords: Adolescents; Children; Chronic pain; Pain coping.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors report no conflicts of interest.Sponsorships or competing interests that may be relevant to content are disclosed at the end of this article.

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