Cross-Sectional Associations among Components of Injustice Appraisals and Functioning in Adolescents With Chronic Pain.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: Pain-related appraisals, including pain-related injustice, impact the development and maintenance of chronic pain. This cross-sectional study aimed to examine the relationship between the cognitive-emotional components of pain-related injustice-blame/unfairness and severity/irreparability of loss-and functioning in a mixed sample of adolescents with chronic pain. METHODS: Pediatric patients age 11-18 years (N = 408) completed forms assessing pain-related injustice, pain intensity, and physical and psychosocial functioning as part of their routine assessment in a pediatric chronic pain clinic between January 2014 and January 2019. A series of hierarchical regressions were used to evaluate the relationships among the separate components of pain-related injustice appraisals and functioning. RESULTS: Pain intensity and blame/unfairness appraisals were significantly associated with emotional functioning with blame/unfairness being the stronger association (ß = -.27). Blame/unfairness appraisals, severity/irreparability appraisals, and pain intensity were significantly associated with physical functioning with pain intensity being the strongest association (ß = .36). Pain intensity, blame/unfairness appraisals, and severity/irreparability appraisals were significantly associated with social functioning with blame/unfairness being the strongest association (ß = -.34). Pain intensity and severity/irreparability appraisals were significantly associated with school functioning with severity/irreparability being the stronger association (ß = -.19). CONCLUSIONS: These results lend further support to incorporating pain-related injustice appraisals in standard clinical pain assessments. Treatment practices should target the specific injustice appraisals and domains of functioning impacted for each pediatric patient with chronic pain.