Confirmatory factor analysis of the childhood anxiety sensitivity index: a gender comparison.

The Childhood Anxiety Sensitivity Index (CASI) is an 18-item self-report tool designed to measure the construct of anxiety sensitivity (i.e. the belief that anxiety may have harmful consequences such as sickness, embarrassment, or loss of control) in children and adolescents.

Attachment dimensions and young children's response to pain.

Background/objective: The present study examined the relationship between attachment dimensions and child pain behaviour following both an everyday pain incident (eg, bumps and scrapes) and acute pain incident (eg, immunization) in 66 five-year-old children.

Methods: Secure, avoidant, ambivalent and controlling attachment dimensions were assessed using aggregates of laboratory-based reunion behaviour, performance on representational measures of attachment and the measure of emotion regulation. Child pain behaviour, during immunization and everyday pain incidents, was rated in terms of reactivity, anger and calming time.

Social problem solving, conduct problems, and callous-unemotional traits in children.

This study examined the association between social problem solving, conduct problems (CP), and callous-unemotional (CU) traits in elementary age children. Participants were 53 children (40 boys and 13 girls) aged 7-12 years. Social problem solving was evaluated using the Social Problem Solving Test-Revised, which requires children to produce solutions to eight hypothetical social problems, including five problems involving acquiring a desired object and three problems gaining access to a peer.

Gender differences in Childhood Anxiety Sensitivity Index (CASI) dimensions.

We examined the hierarchical structure of the Childhood Anxiety Sensitivity Index (CASI) as a function of gender and examined the occurrence of gender differences in anxiety sensitivity (AS) dimensions in a large nonclinical sample of children and adolescents (N = 1698). Separate principal components analyses (PCAs) on the 18 CASI items for the total sample, boys, and girls revealed similar lower-order three-factor structures for all groups. The three factors reflected Physical, Social/Control, and Psychological Concerns.

Relations between young children's responses to the depiction of separation and pain experiences.

This study examined relations between young children's representations of separation and pain experiences in 60, 4- and 5-year-old children. Separation representations were assessed with the Separation Anxiety Test (SAT) and pain representations were assessed by examining responses to pictures of children about to experience pain in the presence of parent figures. Results showed that representations of separation and pain experience were systematically related and the patterns were not accounted for by the child's ability to differentiate emotional states, language ability, or reports of emotional regulation.

Menstrual pain intensity, coping, and disability: the role of pain catastrophizing.

Objective: Menstrual pain or primary dysmenorrhea has not received much attention in the field of pain research. Little is understood about the effects menstrual pain has on the women who experience it. No studies to date have examined the cognitive factors related to the perceived intensity and coping of menstrual pain.

The parents' postoperative pain measure: replication and extension to 2-6-year-old children.

Pain assessment is a difficult task for parents at home following children's surgery. The purpose of the present study was to confirm the psychometric properties of a behavioural measure of postoperative pain developed to assist parents with pain assessment in children aged 7-12 years following day surgery. The study also examined the reliability and validity of the measure with children aged 2-6 years.

Construct validity of the parents' postoperative pain measure.

Objectives: Pain assessment can be a challenging task for parents, who increasingly provide the care for their children after surgery. This research provides evidence of the construct validity of the Parents' Postoperative Pain Measure (PPPM), a 15-item behavioral scale.

Methods: Study 1 examined the ability of scores on the PPPM to discriminate between pain and anxiety in a sample of 75 children (30 girls) between the ages of 7 and 12 years undergoing day surgery.