Background & Aims
Racial inequities have been demonstrated in adult as well as child pain care, in which minorities are systematically disadvantaged or discriminated. Identifying mechanisms through which observers engage in discriminatory behaviours towards individuals in pain is critically important .The current study examined the role of observer attentional processing in the context of child pain. In particular, the current study examined whether white observers’ attention towards child’s pain varies depending on racialized identity and level of pain expressiveness of the child. Furthermore, the moderating impact of pain-related beliefs about Black vs White individuals on observers’ attentional to child pain was explored.
Methods
Observer attention deployment was indexed using a Visual Search Task (VST) in which facial pain expressions of white and black children were presented. Observer attention to child pain was operationalised through Attentional Engagement (with higher scores indicating attention is more easily drawn to pain faces) and Attentional Disengagement (with lower scores indicating attention is more difficultly disengaged from pain faces).
Results
Findings demonstrated that white observers’ attention is more easily drawn towards pain expressed by black children than by white children. Attentional Disengagement from pain was not affected by children’s racialized identity. The child’s level of facial expressiveness, nor observer pain-related beliefs impacted VST attention indices.
Conclusions
This study is the first to examine observers’ attentional processing of pain expressed by White vs Black children. Evidence for facilitated attentional deployment by white observers to pain expressed by Black children was observed. The current findings contrast with prior research in adults and theoretical expectations, hence calling for follow-up research.
References
Anderson KO, Green CR, Payne R. Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Pain: Causes and Consequences of Unequal Care. J Pain 2009;10:1187–1204. doi:10.1016/J.JPAIN.2009.10.002
Groenewald, C. B., Rabbitts, J. A., Hansen, E. E., & Palermo, T. M. (2018). Racial differences in opioid prescribing for children in the United States. Pain, 159(10), 2050–2057. https://doi.org/10.1097/j.pain.0000000000001290
Vervoort T, Trost Z, Sütterlin S, Caes L, Moors A. Emotion regulatory function of parent attention to child pain and associated implications for parental pain control behaviour. Pain 2014;155:1453–1463. doi:10.1016/j.pain.2013.02.01
Presenting Author
Tine Vervoort
Poster Authors
Topics
- Racial/Ethnic/Economic Differences/Disparities