The main purpose of this series of studies was to investigate the efficacy of attentional coping strategies in altering children's responses to a painful experience. After a review of the theoretical and empirical links between pain experience and attention, Studies 1-4 compared the efficacy of imagery-based strategies that focussed attention away from a painful experience (distraction) or towards a painful experience (sensory-focussing) on 7- to 14-year-old children??s responses to cold-pressor pain. Image calibration studies (Studies 1-2) ensured that the imagery interventions were matched for other important parameters including affect and vividness. Studies 3 and 4 found that imagery-based attentional coping strategies led to increased tolerance of cold-pressor pain relative to a no-treatment control. Study 3 found that younger children (7-9 years) had better pain outcomes when assigned to the distraction condition than the sensory-focussing condition. For older children (10-14 years) the efficacy of different attentional interventions depended on the degree to which the strategy matched the child's preferred use of distraction as a coping style, providing partial support for the congruence hypothesis. Studies 5-6 tested the novel hypothesis that provision of sensory information before a painful experience may enhance the efficacy of an attentional coping strategy such as distraction. In line with self-regulation theory, children who received preparatory sensory information as well as a distraction intervention showed longer pain tolerance, lower pain intensity ratings, and a trend towards less facial pain expressions than if they received either intervention alone. These findings are discussed in terms of key attentional theories, and theories of attentional development. Implications for theory, clinical practice and further research are also considered.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/225543 |
| Date | January 2009 |
| Creators | Jaaniste, Tiina, Psychology, Faculty of Science, UNSW |
| Publisher | Publisher:University of New South Wales. Psychology |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | http://unsworks.unsw.edu.au/copyright, http://unsworks.unsw.edu.au/copyright |
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