Promoting Psychological Flexibility in Parents of Adolescents With Chronic Pain: Pilot Study of an 8-Week Group Intervention
Abstract
Parent responses to child pain affect children’s symptoms and functioning including school attendance, social functioning, and depression. In cross-sectional studies, parents’ pain-related psychological flexibility is associated with responses to child pain, but no intervention has yet specifically targeted psychological flexibility in parents of teens with chronic pain. Drawing on acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), we created and piloted an 8-week group-based intervention for parents of teens with pain. Eight parents of teens with chronic pain enrolled, and 6 completed the study. Parents completed the Parent Psychological Flexibility Questionnaire, Adult Response to Child Symptoms, and PROMIS Pain Interference Proxy Questionnaire multiple times during the 8-week study and follow-up period (2-week, 3-month, and 6-month); teens also completed the PROMIS Pain Interference Questionnaire at these same time points. Questionnaire responses were evaluated with hierarchical linear modeling; separate slopes were calculated for intervention and follow-up. Results indicated that parent pain-related psychological flexibility increased during the intervention and through follow-up. Protective parenting responses decreased significantly during follow-up only, as did adolescent-rated pain interference. Parents indicated high satisfaction with the intervention. Results of this pilot study suggest that a group-based parent intervention is feasible and can lead to positive changes in par…
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Recent treatment studies have specifically targeted parents of children with chronic pain and shown improved parental psychological flexibility intending to diminish parental distress and promote more adaptive responses to their child's pain.
“Recent treatment studies have specifically targeted parents of children with chronic pain and shown improved parental psychological flexibility intending to diminish parental distress and promote more adaptive responses to their child’s pain [94, 95].”
From Feasibility of group-based acceptance and commitment therapy for adolescents (AHEAD) with multiple functional somatic syndromes: A pilot study (2020) · cites this paper as [94]
ACT is effective for improving HRQL in parents of children with chronic conditions, chronic pain, and anxiety.
“Empirical findings suggest that ACT is effective for improving HRQL in clinical samples of adults living with chronic illness such as IBD [13,14] and in parents of children with chronic conditions, chronic pain, and anxiety [11,15,16,17,18].”
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- Authors
- Wallace, D. P., Woodford, B., & Connelly, M.
- Affiliations
- Children's Mercy Hospital (US)
- Corresponding author
- Wallace, Dustin P.
- Venue
- Clinical Practice in Pediatric Psychology
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2016-12
- Volume
- 4
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 405-416
- ISSN
- 2169-4826 (ISSN-L)
- 2169-4834
- OpenAlex
- W2559968223
- Cited by
- 61
- References
- 18
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 5 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 7 · 2021: 7 · 2020: 16 · 2019: 10 · 2018: 8 · 2017: 2
- FWCI
- 7.77
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Clinical Practice in Pediatric Psychology (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- Menorah Legacy Foundation
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Pediatrics, Perinatology and Child Health › Pediatric Pain Management Techniques
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Mindfulness and Compassion Interventions
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Pharmacology › Musculoskeletal pain and rehabilitation
- Keywords
- psychological flexibility, parents of adolescents, chronic pain, acceptance and commitment therapy, group intervention, protective parenting, pain interference, adolescent pain
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