Parent-Child Reminiscing in the Context of Procedural and Postsurgical Pediatric Pain

Pavlova, Maria

Parent-Child Reminiscing in the Context of Procedural and Postsurgical Pediatric Pain

dc.contributor.advisor	Noel, Melanie
dc.contributor.author	Pavlova, Maria
dc.contributor.committeemember	Orr, Serena L.
dc.contributor.committeemember	Graham, Susan
dc.contributor.committeemember	Yeates, Keith O.
dc.date	2023-11
dc.date.accessioned	2023-06-29T19:21:02Z
dc.date.available	2023-06-29T19:21:02Z
dc.date.issued	2023-06
dc.description.abstract	Objective. Children experience pain often and remember it long after painful experiences are over. Up to 25% of children remember past pain in a negatively-biased way (i.e., recalling higher levels of pain as compared to the initial pain reports) and are at risk of experiencing higher levels of pain in the future. Pain memories are malleable and can be reframed through conversations. Recent evidence demonstrated that the way parents reminisce about past pain with their children influenced how children remembered their past pain. Yet, no interventions have used parental reminiscing to change children’s memories for pain. The present dissertation aimed to develop a parent-led memory-reframing intervention that harnesses parent-child reminiscing about past pain and to examine the intervention’s efficacy to change children’s memories for pain. Methods. Three randomized controlled trials investigated whether parents can be taught to reminisce about past pain optimally to, in turn, change children’s memories for pain to be more accurate/positively-biased (i.e., recalling lower levels of pain compared to the initial reports). Additionally, the dissertation examined whether optimal parent-child reminiscing would result in lower levels of future needle pain. Parental beliefs regarding reminiscing about past pain were investigated to optimize the intervention and increase parental motivation to engage in reminiscing about past pain. Results. The parent-led memory-reframing intervention resulted in young children remembering their past post-surgical, but not needle, pain in a more accurate/positively-biased way. The intervention also changed parental reminiscing style to include optimal strategies for reframing past painful experiences. Parents rated the intervention to be feasible and highly acceptable in the context of post-surgical and needle pain. Results also demonstrated that some parental beliefs regarding reminiscing about past painful experiences may be a barrier that prevents parents from engaging in reminiscing about past pain. Conclusions. This dissertation developed and examined the efficacy of a parent-led memory-reframing intervention, a new avenue in pediatric pain management that targets children’s pain memories. The intervention was efficacious in changing how children remember their past post-surgical pain. The preliminary results warrant future large-scale trials to further examine the intervention’s potential to change children’s pain and health trajectories.
dc.identifier.citation	Pavlova, M. (2023). Parent-child reminiscing in the context of procedural and postsurgical pediatric pain (Doctoral thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca.
dc.identifier.uri	https://hdl.handle.net/1880/116680
dc.identifier.uri	https://dx.doi.org/10.11575/PRISM/41523
dc.language.iso	en	en
dc.publisher.faculty	Arts
dc.rights	Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International	en
dc.rights.uri	http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
dc.subject	pediatric pain
dc.subject	parent-child reminiscing
dc.subject	memory for pain
dc.subject	memory for fear
dc.subject	children
dc.subject	parents
dc.subject.classification	Psychology--Clinical
dc.title	Parent-Child Reminiscing in the Context of Procedural and Postsurgical Pediatric Pain
dc.type	Thesis
thesis.degree.discipline	Psychology – Clinical
thesis.degree.grantor	University of Calgary
thesis.degree.name	Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
ucalgary.thesis.accesssetbystudent	I do not require a thesis withhold – my thesis will have open access and can be viewed and downloaded publicly as soon as possible.