THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CHILDRENS COPING STYLES AND PSYCHOLOGICAL INTERVENTIONS FOR COLD PRESSOR PAIN

This study examined the hypothesis that matching pain management inter ventions to children's preferred coping methods would increase pain to lerance and decrease self-reported pain during the cold pressor pain p aradigm. Children aged 8-10 years were classified as 'attenders' (focu sing on the stimulus) or 'distractors' (focusing away from the stimulu s) based upon their spontaneous coping responses during a baseline exp osure to the cold pressor. Children were then randomly assigned to 1 o f 3 intervention conditions (sensory focusing, imagery, or no interven tion) and completed the cold pressor procedure again 2 weeks later. A significant interaction was found between coping style and interventio n. Children who were classified as distractors demonstrated greater to lerance when taught to use imagery techniques (a 'matched' interventio n). Although pain ratings tended to be lower for distractors using ima gery, the significant interaction resulted from an increase in ratings for the distractors using sensory focusing (i.e., a 'mismatched' inte rvention). Results suggest that, for distractors, interventions that a re consistent with natural coping methods are most effective in enhanc ing abilities to cope with pain, while a mismatched intervention reduc es coping abilities. The findings also suggest further study regarding how to provide effective pain intervention with attenders since neith er intervention enhanced coping in this group.