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Psychological Characteristics of Children who Suffer from Headache: A Research Note
Author(s) -
Kowal Anna,
Pritchard Don
Publication year - 1990
Publication title -
journal of child psychology and psychiatry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.652
H-Index - 211
eISSN - 1469-7610
pISSN - 0021-9630
DOI - 10.1111/j.1469-7610.1990.tb00803.x
Subject(s) - shyness , psychology , anxiety , anxiety sensitivity , depression (economics) , clinical psychology , temperament , perfectionism (psychology) , developmental psychology , personality , psychiatry , social psychology , economics , macroeconomics
Twenty‐three volunteer subjects were compared with 23 (matched) control subjects on self and parental ratings of anxiety, depression, shyness‐sensitivity, sleeping difficulties, perfectionism, psychosomatic problems (unrelated to headache), other behavioural disturbances, major life stress events and parental expectations (i.e. achievement orientation). Results indicated that the headache children showed significantly higher shyness‐sensitivity, psychosomatic problems and behavioural disturbances and significantly lower parental expectations than the control group children. No other differences were found. While none of the variables were predictive of the frequency or intensity of head pain, measures of anxiety, perfectionism, and life stress events contributed significantly to the prediction of the severity of head pain.