Sex Differences in Parental Pain Catastrophizing among Parents of Children with Headache

Background and One of the factors that are important in interpersonal relationships and the psychosocial context of children and parents in the field of chronic pain is the catastrophic thinking model. The aim of this study was to investigate the gender-related differences in the rate of catastrophizing of mothers and fathers by controlling the effect of headache in children.
This research was a causal comparative design. The statistical population included all parents of children with headache in Tehran in 2016. In this study 210 parents (117 mothers and 93 fathers) of 132 children with chronic or recurrent pain participated and answered to the Pain Catastrophizing Scale (Goubert et al, 2006) and Numeric Pain Rating Scale, asking for the average of pain severity in last three months before the research. Data analysis was performed using independent T-test, multivariate analysis and one-way variance analysis as well as covariance analysis.
Results indicated a significant difference between mothers and fathers according to their levels of pain catastrophizing (P = 0.018). Multivariate variance analysis showed no statistical significant difference in subscales of catastrophizing (rumination and magnification/ helplessness) according to the sex of parents; but univariate variance analysis showed a significant difference in using magnification/helplessness thinking patterns between mothers and fathers (P = 0.02). Covariance analyses demonstrated that, by controlling the effects of pain severity, still mothers were significantly higher in catastrophizing about their children’s pain (P = 0.037).
Results of this study indicated that the difference in levels of parental pain catastrophizing between mothers and fathers can be due to other than child's pain intensity.