Childhood pain: the school-aged childʼs viewpoint

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Abstract
This interview study was designed to obtain a substantial body of information about childhood pain from a large cohort (n = 994) of Northern Californian [USA] school children from the ages of 5-12 yr. The primary criteria for assignment to groups were extent of hospitalization experience, recency of hospitalization, presence of a painful chonic condition and chronic iatrogenic pain. Open-ended questions determined the extent of the children''s knowledge and understanding of pain, their ability to describe pain, specific pain experiences, use of coping strategies, preferences concerning the timing of information about impending pain and maladaptive pain usage. There was unequivocal evidence of the children''s ability to communicate effectively concerning their pain, however, knowledge and understanding of pain for most of the sample was at a low developmental level, with no clearly defined age trends and no sex differences. There was relatively low use of coping strategies and the frequency of maladaptive pain usage was disquieting.

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