Psychosocial Functioning of Parents of Youth Receiving Intensive Interdisciplinary Pain Treatment

Parents of youth with chronic pain report psychosocial difficulties, yet treatment often focuses on improving their child's functioning and pain. This study evaluated changes in parents' social and emotional functioning and explored predictors of change, as they completed a parent-focused intervention while their child was enrolled in an intensive interdisciplinary pain treatment (IIPT) program. Parents (n = 69) completed questionnaires at baseline and weekly (average duration of 4 weeks) during their child's participation in IIPT. Parents engaged in 3 groups per week providing education, therapeutic art, and psychotherapy (3 hr/week total). At baseline, 38% of parents reported scores in the clinically elevated range for at least 1 psychosocial variable. Linear mixed modeling for the full sample indicated reduced parent anxiety (t = -2.72, p .05). For parents with at least moderately elevated psychosocial concerns, statistically significant improvements were observed for all 4 outcomes (all p's