It Takes Two: Parent Functioning Within the Pediatric Chronic Pain Experience and Interdisciplinary Rehabilitation Treatment

Objectives: The present study aims to examine relationships between parental behavior and cognition and treatment outcomes in children enrolled in an intensive interdisciplinary pain rehabilitation program. Research Method: 670 consecutive referrals of children with chronic pain were enrolled in a clinical database registry from 2009 to 2014. Participants and their parents completed measures of physical and psychosocial functioning, and pain-related severity ratings. Data were taken at three time points: admission (N = 670), discharge (N = 504), and 6-month posttreatment (N = 110), although only complete data from 82 participants was used for final analyses. Results: Both children and parents alike reported significant improvement in functioning, both at discharge and 6 months posttreatment. Parent functioning showed weak to moderate associations with child functioning, with stronger correlations at 6 months posttreatment. Regression analyses demonstrated that changes in parent functioning predicted child functioning and repots of pain at 6 months. Conclusions: Parents arc an integral part of a child's pain experience and associated disability. An improvement in parent functioning in the course of chronic pain rehabilitation is linked with functional gains in the child. Future research and clinical programming should target the role of parents in pediatric chronic pain interventions in order to optimize both child and family functioning.