Journal of Pediatric Psychology Advance Access originally published online on July 27, 2005
Journal of Pediatric Psychology 2006 31(6):582-596; doi:10.1093/jpepsy/jsj050
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Anxiety and Psychosocial Stress as Predictors of Headache and Abdominal Pain in Urban Early Adolescents
1 Department of Psychology, University of Missouri-Saint Louis and 2 Department of Psychology, Virginia Commonwealth University
All correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Kamila S. White, Department of Psychology, University of Missouri-Saint Louis, One University Boulevard, 325 Stadler Hall, Saint Louis, MO 63121-4499. E-mail: kswhite{at}bu.edu.
Received August 3, 2004; revisions received December 14, 2004, March 28, 2005, and June 16, 2005; accepted June 22, 2005
Objective To examine the relations among anxiety, psychosocial stress, and headache and abdominal pain complaints within the context of the Biobehavioral Model of Pediatric Pain. Methods Adolescents from urban schools serving a predominantly African-American population completed measures of pain, anxiety, witnessing violence, problem situations, and victimization at the end of the seventh grade (N = 502) and 6 months later (longitudinal N = 289). Results A high prevalence of weekly headaches (40%) and abdominal pain (36%) was reported. Anxiety partially mediated relations between psychosocial stress and pain at Time 1, particularly for problem situations. Longitudinal models showed that adolescents reporting higher levels of pain at Time 1 reported greater increases in victimization and anxiety at Time 2. Changes in pain were positively correlated with changes in anxiety and stress variables. Conclusions Implications for understanding the causes and correlates of headache and abdominal pain in normal children are discussed.
Key words: abdominal pain; anxiety; headache; stress.
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