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Impact of Familial Factors on Children’s Chronic Pain

  • Reference work entry
Encyclopedia of Pain

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Synonyms

Familial factors; Family environment; Parental response; Psychosocial factors

Definition

Of the many psychosocial variables known to affect chronic pain in children, the family has emerged as one of the more prominent. Families are involved in all aspects of their children’s pain, including assessment and management. It is now generally accepted that parents play an important role in influencing how their children learn to respond to pain. Having a child with chronic pain can also place a significant emotional and financial burden on families. This entry will provide a brief description of the major research areas examining the impact of familial factors on children’s chronic pain. Several more comprehensive reviews of family factors and pain are also available elsewhere (e.g., Lewandowski et al. 2010; Evans et al. 2008; Palermo and Chambers 2005; Chambers 2003; Palermo 2000).

Introduction

It has long been observed that chronic paintends to run in families, whereby children...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS, Canada

    Kathryn A. Birnie

  2. Department of Psychology, IWK Health Centre, Halifax, NS, Canada

    Lindsay S. Uman

  3. Departments of Pediatrics and Psychology, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS, Canada

    Christine T. Chambers

Authors
  1. Kathryn A. Birnie
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  2. Lindsay S. Uman
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  3. Christine T. Chambers
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Kathryn A. Birnie .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Anesthesiology, Center for Pain Research, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA

    Gerald F. Gebhart

  2. Physiologisches Institut der, Universität Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany

    Robert F. Schmidt

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© 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Birnie, K.A., Uman, L.S., Chambers, C.T. (2013). Impact of Familial Factors on Children’s Chronic Pain. In: Gebhart, G.F., Schmidt, R.F. (eds) Encyclopedia of Pain. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-28753-4_1901

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