Maternal attributions for the causes and remedies of their children's abdominal pain

Objective: To examine mothers' attributions for the causes and remedies of their children's abdominal pain, specifically whether attributions differed according to child diagnosis, reflected a dualistic or multidimensional vi ew of pain, and changed following medical evaluation. Methods: Mothers of children whose medical evaluation indicated peptic dise ase (n = 55) or unexplained pain without identifiable organic disease (n = 98) participated in telephone interviews prior to their children's medical evaluations and one year later. Results: About half of the mothers in each group endorsed both psychosocial and physical factors as important in the etiology of their children's abdo minal pain. Following medical evaluation, mothers in both groups tended to maintain their attributions regarding the importance of psychosocial factor s. Conclusions: Many mothers acknowledged the contribution of psychosocial fac tors to their children's abdominal pain. They may be receptive to behaviora l interventions if physicians present these remedies as an integral compone nt of treatment.