The Relationship of Parental Pain Catastrophizing with Parents Reports of Children’s Anxiety, Depression, and Headache Severity

OBJECTIVE: Parental pain catastrophizing is a construct recognized to have a significant impact on experience of pain in both children and parents. This research aimed to investigate the probable relationship of parental pain catastrophizing with the parent’s reports of children’s anxiety, depression and headache severity amongst Iranian parents of children with chronic or recurrent headache. MATERIALS & METHODS: This study was conducted in 2015-16, in two pediatric neurological centers located in Tehran, Iran; with a convenience sampling method and 212 parents (120 mothers and 92 fathers) of 132 children with a chronic or recurrent headache (migraine and tension-type). They completed the Pain Catastrophizing Scale; Numeric Pain Rating Scale, asking for the average of pain severity in last three months before the research, and the Anxiety and Depression subscales of the Children Behavioral Check List. RESULTS: The mean age of parents was 35.41 yr (SD=5.58) and the mean age of children was 9.83 yr (SD=2.77). A total of 72 girls and 60 boys participated in this study with a mean pain severity for headache in last three months before the research of 4.99 (SD=2.63). Probable sex differences according to parental pain catastrophizing, pain severity, anxiety, and depression were assessed amongst parents. In the next step, the predictability of pain severity from parental pain catastrophizing was evaluated. Results indicated a significant relationship in maternal pain catastrophizing and estimates of pain intensity by mothers. CONCLUSION: These findings represent the importance of parent’s especially mother’s cognitive factors affecting their reports of their children’s pain and related emotional disturbances.