Exploring Family Factors and Mindful Parenting in the Context of Adolescents’ Experience of Paediatric Chronic Pain

Paediatric chronic pain can cause significant difficulties in the physical, psychological and social wellbeing of young people. In recent years, the importance of parenting style and family functioning within chronic pain has been recognised.
The first chapter explores previous research to further our understanding of the ways in which families and parents respond to children’s pain, and how these impact young people with chronic pain. A search of existing published literature in this area was completed. Twenty studies were found which investigated family functioning and parents’ responses to children’s pain. Overall, results showed poorer family functioning, more protective parenting, and increased parental catastrophising about pain was linked with worse pain outcomes for children. These relationships were less consistent over time, however. Further research is needed to understand how change in parents’ thoughts and behaviours, and the interaction of all of these factors, impacts on young people with chronic pain.
The second chapter investigates the relationship between mindful parenting and children’s experience of chronic pain. Mindful parenting means purposefully paying attention to your child and your parenting in the here and now, and non-judgementally. Some studies investigated mindful parenting in other conditions, but research is limited within chronic pain. Forty-nine pairs of adolescents and parents/caregivers participated in this study. Contrary to expectations, no relationship was found between mindful parenting and child outcomes. Results did show however that longer pain duration and more intense pain were linked with worse physical and emotional functioning, and adolescents saw themselves as further behind their peers. This is in line with previous research and adds to the growing evidence base investigating mindful parenting within paediatric chronic pain. Future research should investigate how mindful parenting links with other measures of chronic pain, aiming to recruit larger samples from across the UK.