The role of culture in pain-related caregiver behavior: Comparing Canadian, Icelandic, and Thai caregivers of 6-12-year-old children

• Main Author: Kristjansdottir, Olof
• Other Authors: Interdisciplinary PhD Programme, Doctor of Philosophy, Denise Harrison, Lynn Robinson, Allen Finely, Jack Duffy, Yoko Yoshida, Patrick J. McGrath, Received, Not Applicable
• Language: unknown
• Published: 2017
• Subjects: Pain; Pain in children; Pain-related-parental-behavior; Culture; Cultural values; Parenting styles; Caregivers; Canada; Iceland
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10222/72935

The aim of the study was to examine the role culture plays in caregiver’s pain-related parent behaviors. This study used a cross-cultural survey design with a convenience sample of caregivers of 6-12-year-old children (N = 547) living in Canada (n = 183), Iceland (n = 184), or Thailand (n = 180). A team-translation approach included psychometric assessment and confirmatory factor analysis, ensuring an equivalent measurement model of cultural values, parenting styles, and pain-related caregiver responses across the three samples. Univariate analysis entailed comparing the average levels of, and multigroup structural equation modeling analysis of the relationships among, cultural values, parenting styles, and pain-related caregiver behaviors across Canadian, Icelandic, and Thai caregivers. Cross-country differences in the endorsement of cultural values (vertical individualism, horizontal individualism, and collectivism), parenting styles (authoritative and authoritarian), and pain-related behaviors (solicitousness and discouraging) emerged between Canadians and Thais, but not always in the expected direction. Icelanders were more similar to Thais than Canadians on the cultural values they endorsed. Country did not affect which cultural model of parenting (cultural values and parenting styles) caregivers adopted; thus, country did not predict pain-related behavior. Parenting styles mediated between cultural values and pain-related caregiver behaviors. Vertical/horizontal individualism, collectivism, and authoritative and authoritarian-parenting styles positively predicted solicitousness. Vertical individualism and authoritarian-parenting style were positive predictors of discouraging, whereas other predictors were not. Thesis results suggested that cross-country differences exist in how caregivers behave when their child is in pain. However, country does not appear to influence which cultural models of parenting caregivers adopted, including their pain-related behaviors. The four cultural models of parenting, predicting solicitousness, indicated that solicitousness may have different cultural meanings among individuals, and supports others’ claims of solicitousness universality in a pediatric pain context. Future studies are needed to confirm if cultural models of parenting processes around pain-related caregiver behaviors are universal.