Translating the tears: parents' use of behavioural cues to detect pain in normally developing young children with everyday minor illnesses or injuries

Abstract

The objectives of this paper were to (i) identify the behavioural cues used by parents to detect young children's transient pain from minor illnesses or injuries ('everyday pain'); and (ii) perform an initial psychometric evaluation of the Parents' Post-operative Pain Measure (PPPM) in the context of children's everyday pain. Cross-sectional Internet survey. One thousand seven hundred sixteen parents of children (1-6 years) completed the survey. The parents reported more behaviours when children had pain from minor illnesses than from minor injuries (9.6 ± 3.9 vs. 2.5 ± 2.3, P < 0.001). Principal component analysis of the PPPM revealed a two-factor solution for illness-related pain and a three-factor solution for injury-related pain. Behavioural cues varied with characteristics of children (age, gender and prior hospital experience) and parents (gender, age and parenting experience). The PPPM is a promising tool for parental assessment of children's pain in everyday situations. Further research is needed to determine its utility in facilitating communication between parents and healthcare professionals, and in improving the management of young children's pain.