The Pain Coping Questionnaire: preliminary validation

Area of Science:

• Pediatric Psychology
• Pain Management
• Psychometrics

Background:

• Assessing children's pain coping strategies is crucial for effective pain management.
• Existing measures may not adequately capture the multifaceted nature of pediatric pain coping.
• A validated, accessible instrument is needed for research and clinical practice.

Purpose of the Study:

• To introduce and validate the Pain Coping Questionnaire (PCQ) for assessing coping strategies in children and adolescents.
• To examine the psychometric properties of the PCQ in healthy and recurrently pained youth.
• To explore the relationship between coping strategies and pain-related outcomes.

Main Methods:

• Two studies involving healthy children/adolescents and those with recurrent pain (headache, arthritis).
• Factor analyses to determine scale structure (subscales and higher-order scales).
• Correlations with measures of pain appraisal, coping effectiveness, distress, pain thresholds, and disability.

Main Results:

• Factor analyses supported eight subscales and three higher-order scales (approach, problem-focused avoidance, emotion-focused avoidance).
• The PCQ demonstrated good internal consistency and validity, correlating with expected outcomes.
• Emotion-focused avoidance linked to increased distress and lower coping effectiveness; approach coping linked to less disability.

Conclusions:

• The Pain Coping Questionnaire (PCQ) is a promising, psychometrically sound instrument for assessing pediatric pain coping.
• Its simple, brief format makes it suitable for a wide age range (8+ years) and various pain conditions.
• The PCQ can inform interventions aimed at improving how children and adolescents manage pain.