Highlights
- •Caregiver behavior is a mechanism by which culture affects infant acute pain.
- •Individualism is measured using a systematic continuous scale.
- •Emotional availability mediated caregiver culture and infant pain.
Abstract
This study aimed to understand the relationship between caregiver culture and infant
pain expression at the 12-month immunization and discern if a mechanism subsuming
this relationship was the quality of caregiver behaviors (emotional availability).
Infants (N = 393) with immunization data at 12 months of age were examined. On the
basis of the Development of Infant Acute Pain Responding model, a mediation model
was developed to examine how caregiver behaviors mediate the relationship between
caregiver heritage culture and infant pain. Culture was operationalized by an objectively
derived quantification of caregivers' self-reported heritage culture's individualism.
Two mediation models were estimated, examining infant pain expression at 1 and 2 minutes
post-needle. Caregivers who self-reported heritage cultures that were more highly
individualistic tended to show greater emotional availability, which in turn predicted
decreased infant pain expression at 1 and 2 minutes post-needle. The present findings
further our understanding of one mechanism by which caregiver culture affects infant
acute pain expression.
Perspective
Adding to the literature examining direct relationships between culture and infant
immunization pain, this article proposes the quality of caregiver behaviors as a mechanism
by which culture affects infant acute pain expression at 12 months of age. Results
support the proposed mechanism and inform our understanding of the role of caregiver
culture in the infant pain context.
Key words
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: August 30, 2016
Accepted:
August 10,
2016
Received in revised form:
August 9,
2016
Received:
December 8,
2015
Footnotes
This research was supported by funds from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR; New Investigator Award and Operating Grant (Principal Investigator: Dr. Pillai Riddell) and the York Research Chairs Program. In addition, Ms. O'Neill received funding from the Ontario Graduate Scholarship program, the Meighen Wright Foundation scholarship program, the CIHR Canada Graduate Scholars program, and the CIHR Pain in Child Health Strategic Training Program.
The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.
Identification
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© 2016 by the American Pain Society
