The relation between parental chronic pain, pain‐related attention and interpretation biases in pain‐free adolescents

We furthermore examined differences between both groups on pain catastrophizing, pain anxiety and somatic symptoms and explored the relations between parental pain catastrophizing and aforementioned pain vulnerability measures in offspring.

Methods

Offspring of parents with chronic pain complaints (n = 24) and pain‐free parents (n = 27) completed measures of attentional bias (i.e., pictorial dot probe), interpretation bias (i.e., ambiguous word association task), pain catastrophizing, pain anxiety and somatic symptoms. Parents completed measures of pain catastrophizing and psychological distress. Results: No differences between offspring of parents with and without pain complaints were observed on pain catastrophizing, pain anxiety and somatic symptoms.

Both groups of healthy adolescents predominantly showed benign, non‐healththreatening interpretations. Children of pain‐free parents showed an attention bias for pain stimuli, while offspring of parents with pain complaints showed no such bias. Conclusions: Future research is needed to further elucidate the precise role of parental pain in the development of pain‐related biases and the significance of these biases in the onset and/or maintenance of a chronic pain condition in children and adolescents.

Significance: Parental chronic pain may install psychological vulnerability for developing chronic pain and associated complaints in offspring. This study did not show differences in pain‐directed attentional and interpretation bias between offspring of parents with chronic pain complaints and offspring of pain‐free parents.