Cultural influences on parental responses to children's pain

Olof Kristjansdottir, Patrick J. McGrath, G. Allen Finley, Gudrun Kristjansdottir, Pulsuk Siripul, Sean P. MacKinnon, Yoko Yoshida

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

There is a scarcity of work examining the relationship between culture and pain-related caregiver behaviors. Moreover, no pediatric pain studies have examined the relationship between caregiver cultural values and pain-related caregiver behaviors nor discern if this process is mediated by caregiver parenting styles and moderated by ecosocial context. Based on cross-cultural developmental theories, this study hypothesized that ecosocial context would moderate the relationship between cultural values, parenting styles, and pain-related caregiver behaviors; and that parenting styles mediate the effect of cultural values on pain-related caregiver behaviors. A cross-cultural survey design was employed using a convenience sample of 547 caregivers of 6 to 12 year olds living in Canada (n 5 183), Iceland (n 5 184), and Thailand (n 5 180). Multigroup structural equation modeling showed that ecosocial context did not affect which cultural model of parenting the caregiver adopted. Parenting styles mediated the relationship between cultural values and pain-related caregiver behavior. Vertical/horizontal individualism, collectivism, and authoritative-and authoritarian-parenting styles positively predicted solicitousness. Vertical individualism and authoritarian-parenting style positively predicted discouraging behavior, whereas other predictors did not. The findings support the sociocommunication model of children's pain by showing that cultural context does affect parents' behaviors. They also corroborate with others' claims of solicitousness universality in a pediatric pain context. However, solicitousness may have different cultural meanings among individuals and may be used in conjunction with discouraging behavior. The findings from this study have implications for the theory development about culture and pediatric pain, but do not provide specific clinical recommendations.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)2035-2049
Number of pages15
JournalPain
Volume159
Issue number10
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2018
Externally publishedYes

Subject classification (UKÄ)

  • Pediatrics

Free keywords

  • Authoritarian-parenting
  • Authoritative-parenting
  • Cultural values
  • Culture
  • Discouraging
  • Ecosocial context
  • Horizontal-vertical individualism-collectivism
  • Mediation
  • Moderation
  • Pain-related parental behaviors
  • Parenting styles
  • Solicitousness
  • Structural equation modeling

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