Highlights
- •Black participants demonstrated a lower pain tolerance than whites.
- •Blacks engaged in more situation-specific catastrophizing and praying than whites.
- •Catastrophizing and praying mediate the race-pain relationship.
- •The indirect effect of praying was stronger than that of catastrophizing.
Abstract
Black individuals have a lower tolerance for experimental pain than white individuals.
Black and white individuals also differ in their use of pain coping strategies, which
may explain the race differences in pain sensitivity. We examined the extent to which
situation-specific pain coping mediated black-white differences in pain sensitivity.
We hypothesized that 1) black participants would demonstrate lower pain tolerance
than white participants, 2) black participants would use different pain coping strategies
than white participants, and 3) the differential use of these strategies would mediate
the relationship between race and pain tolerance. Healthy college undergraduates (N = 190)
participated in a cold pressor task and then completed the Coping Strategies Questionnaire–Revised
to assess their situation-specific pain coping. Compared with white participants,
black participants demonstrated lower pain tolerance, engaged in more situation-specific
catastrophizing and praying, and ignored pain less frequently. Catastrophizing and
praying were inversely related to pain tolerance and were significant mediators of
the relationship between race and pain tolerance. The indirect effect of praying was
stronger than that of catastrophizing. Race differences in pain sensitivity may be
due, in part, to differences in the use of catastrophizing and praying as coping strategies.
These results may help guide treatments addressing maladaptive pain coping.
Perspective
This study suggests that race differences in pain sensitivity may be due, in part,
to the differential use of catastrophizing and praying strategies. Psychosocial treatments
for pain should encourage patients to take an active role in their pain management.
Key words
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: February 25, 2015
Accepted:
February 14,
2015
Received in revised form:
January 22,
2015
Received:
October 10,
2014
Footnotes
Supported by a grant from the Department of Psychology at Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis.
There are no conflicts of interest that might be seen as influencing or prejudicing the research.
Identification
Copyright
© 2015 American Pain Society. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
