Parental Response to Children’s Chronic Pain

Aims: The aim of this study was to describe the behavior of Moroccan parents toward their children's chronic pain. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in different hospital wards. Parents of hospitalized children with chronic pain aged six or over participated in the study. The parents' behavior toward their children's pain was assessed using an Arabic version of the Adult Responses to Children's Symptoms (ARCS) scale. The scores for each dimension were calculated by summing the responses of the items related to that dimension, and then they were normalized to obtain scores ranging from 0 to 100. The comparison of scores was performed using Student's t-test or ANOVA. The association between quantitative variables was assessed using a correlation coefficient. Results: A total of 100 parents of children with chronic pain participated in the study. The children's average age was 10.0 ± 2.7 years. The majority of children (62%) experienced pain for more than six months. The joints were the most common location of pain (43%), followed by the abdomen (35%). The "Protect" and "Monitor" dimensions had good reliability with Cronbach's alpha coefficients of 0.80 and 0.69, respectively. The highest mean normalized scores were noted for the "Monitor" and "Protect" dimensions, with means of 82.1 and 70.8, respectively. The "Minimize" dimension had the lowest mean score of 41.4. Parental behavior was not linked to child- or pain-related characteristics. There was no difference in how mothers and fathers behaved towards their children’s pain. Conclusion: Parents of children with chronic pain in Morocco scored higher on all dimensions of the ARCS, with the highest scores in the "protect" and "monitor" dimensions. These behaviors can negatively affect children's somatic symptoms, functional disability, and anxiety. Our study revealed the importance of providing support to both children and parents of children with chronic pain to manage the pain and related behaviors.