Parental Pain Catastrophizing Influences Decision Making Around Managing Children’s Pain Ayala Y. Gorodzinksy 1, Amy L. Drendel 2 & W. Hobart Davies 1 University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee 1 and Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin and Medical College of Wisconsin 2 Conclusions  In this community sample, parents with higher scores on the PCS-P used a significantly higher number of pharmacological techniques to treat their children pain at home.  Notably, parents with higher PCS-P scores did not use a significantly higher number of non- pharmacological techniques.  These results give health care providers more knowledge of the characteristics of parents more likely to use techniques for treating their children’s pain at home, which may facilitate communication between parents and providers and reduce the likelihood of under- or inadequate-treatment of children’s pain. Implications  Along with the results from the current study it is known that individuals who experience higher levels of PC often engage in higher levels of pain behaviors (Sullivan et al., 2001), therefore future research should assess if parents who have higher levels of pain catastrophizing are more likely to initially use pharmacological techniques prior to using non-pharmacological techniques. Correspondence to Participants  Community parents (n = 569) of children aged 2 to 17 years (M = 11.55, SD = 3.5; 51.3% male) were recruited by undergraduate students at a large Midwestern university to complete an online survey, including the PCS-P and questions regarding treatment of their children’s pain experiences at home.  Participants were 70% mothers, 74% married, predominantly self-reported as Caucasian (84.2%), followed by African-American (7.6%) and Latino/a (2.7%). Results  Almost half of the parents (40.5%) reported that their children experience pain at least monthly.  Most parents provided at least one pharmacological technique (97.2%) and at-least one non- pharmacological technique (95.4%) (see Tables 1 and 2 for details).  Parents with higher than average PCS-P scores (equal to or greater than 20) reported significantly higher use of pharmacological techniques to treat their children’s pain than parents with PCS-P scores less than 20 (M = 1.78 and 1.57, respectively; t(412) = -2.86, p < 0.005; see graph).  There was no difference in use of non-pharmacological techniques for parents across catastrophizing scores. Introduction  Children often experience pain on a daily basis (American Academy of Pediatrics, 2001).  Parents often treat these experiences of pain at home (Finley et al., 1996) using pharmacological or non-pharmacological techniques.  Their use of pain reduction techniques for their children can be influenced by factors unrelated to the child’s pain experience. One of the most influential factors regarding pain experience is pain catastrophizing (PC), which is often described as a tendency to maximize the threat and importance of pain sensations (Sullivan et al., 2001).  It is important to understand how parents’ perceptions of pain can lead to use of treatment techniques for children, as it has been found that children are susceptible to under-treatment or inadequate treatment for pain by parents (Drendel et al., 2006).  The Pain Catastrophizing Scale-Parent (PCS-P; Sullivan, Bishop & Pivik, 1995) measures parent’s catastrophizing regarding their child’s pain. This 13-item measure has a total score ranging from 0 to 52, with average scores below 20 and higher scores indicating higher levels of catastrophizing.  We hypothesized that parents with higher scores on the PCS-P will be more likely to use more pharmacological and non-pharmacological techniques to alleviate their child’s pain. Table 1. Most common non-pharmacological techniques provided Sleep60.8% Ice55.8% Comfort49.7% Massage/Rub47.2% Give liquids44.2% Table 2. Pharmacological techniques provided Tylenol/Acetaminophen76.7% Advil/Motrin/Ibuprofen76.6% Aspirin21.0% Opiates/Narcotics4.5%