Assessment of Pediatric Pain: An Empirical Perspective

Abstract

The development of an instrument to measure pediatric pain perception is presented. The Pediatric Pain Inventory is a projective instrument using 24 pictures representing potentially pain-evoking situations across four settings: medical, recreational, activities of daily living, and psychosocial. Reliability and validity statistics are reported, including alpha coefficients and item-subscale correlations. In addition, correlational and nonparametric data are presented relating to age differences, adult vs. child pain perceptions, and parental identification. Several potential uses of the instrument are suggested.