Sex, gender, and age: contributions to laboratory pain responding in children and adolescents.

Full Abstract

A cross-sectional design across late childhood and adolescence examined the influence of sex, gender socialization, and age on responses to controlled laboratory pain tasks. Healthy children and adolescents (n = 240, 50% female, age 8 to 18 years) completed the Child Sex Role Inventory, a self-report measure of identification with stereotypically masculine and feminine personality traits, as an index of gender socialization and participated in pressure, cold pressor, and heat pain tasks. Pain tolerance, pain intensity, and bothersomeness of each pain task were assessed. Masculinity correlated with lower heat pain ratings in boys but not girls. Logistic regression indicated cold pain intensity ratings were predicted by sex, gender score, and the age-by-gender score interaction. Heat pain intensity was predicted by age, gender score, age-by-gender score interaction, and sex-by-gender score.

PERSPECTIVE:
The current findings support closer examination of the influence of gender socialization on young people's pain responses and highlight the importance of a multifactorial, developmental approach to studying the impact of gender socialization on the emergence of sex differences in pain responses after puberty.

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Author information

Author/s: Myers, Cynthia D (CD); Tsao, Jennie C I (JC); Glover, Dorie A (DA); Kim, Su C (SC); Turk, Norman (N); Zeltzer, Lonnie K (LK);

Affiliation: Department of Interdisciplinary Oncology, Moffitt Cancer Center, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL 33612, USA. myerscd(-atsign-)moffitt.usf.edu

Grants: M01-RR-00865 (Agency:NCRR NIH HHS) ; R01 DE12754-01A1 (Agency:NIDCR NIH HHS)

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article; Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural

Journal: The journal of pain : official journal of the American Pain Society (J Pain), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2006-Aug; vol 7 (issue 8) : pp 556-64

Dates: Created 2006/08/03; Completed 2006/10/02; Revised 2008/11/21;

PMID: 16885012, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 12/26/2008)

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MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

Adolescent
Aging - physiology
Child
Cold Temperature
Female
Gender Identity
Humans
Male
Odds Ratio

Odds Ratio
Pain - psychology
Pain Measurement
Personality
Personality Tests
Pressure
Puberty - psychology
Sex Characteristics
Socialization

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