| Little is known about how Taiwanese children perceive their pain. Because pain is culturally shaped, pain knowledge translated from other cultures may not clearly convey how Taiwanese children perceive pain. The purpose of this study was to explore how Taiwanese children experience pain and describe the relationships between children's pain and personological factors.; A conceptual framework was informed by a concept analysis of pain, the Gate Control Theory and Roy's Adaptation Model. A descriptive correlational research design guided conduct of the study. To gain a clearer understanding of Taiwanese children's pain experiences, both quantitative and qualitative methods were used. Foster's (1997) method for conceptual triangulation guided integration of the quantitative and qualitative findings. Ninety children ages 5 to 14 years were purposefully recruited into three age groups with equal representation of males and females.; Children described their pain through short interviews, drawings, and completion of the Pain Sensory Tool. Results revealed that children's background pain was significantly greater than procedural pain. Surgical pain was greater than medical pain. Regression analysis revealed that previous worst pain intensity, pain expectation and pain acceptance explained 55.8% of the variance in children's overall pain. Children's pain expectation explained most of the variance in children's overall pain. Children's context of pain (number of hospitalizations, previous worst pain intensity, pain expectation and pain acceptance) explained 26.11% of the variance of their current pain (background pain and procedural pain) using canonical correlation. In addition, no significant differences were found in pain dimension by age group and sex, but there was a significant difference in pain description by age group using MANOVA. Younger children used more affective pain words than older children.; The results of this study expanded the knowledge about Taiwanese children's pain experiences and associated factors, especially in relation to pain expectation. Findings supported and expanded the conceptual framework. Results also supported recommendations for research, practice, and education. |
