Childhood Somatic Complaints: Relationships with Child Emotional Functioning and Parental Factors

Abstract: Many schoolchildren experience somatic complaints such as headaches, abdominal pain and fatigue. The aim of the current research is to test the full model of previously found associations between negative affect and somatic complaints in parents and children. Participants were 199 children (aged 8-13, 47% boys) and their parents (aged 31-61, mostly mothers (87%). Self-reports of children and parents on worry, anxiety, depression and somatic complaints were used and parents' reactions to children's emotions wereassessed. The results of the study show that childhood negative affect and parental somatic complaints are positively associated with childhood somatic complaints. In turn, childhood negative affect is related to children's worrying and to parents' responses to children's emotions. The more anxious or depressed children felt, the more they worried. Maladaptive parental responses (such as reprimands and discomfort) to child emotions were positively related to depression. It was also found that parents who experienced more negative affect, reported more somatic complaints and tended to report more maladaptive responses towards their children's emotions

Somatic complaints in childhood: How they are related to children's emotional and social functioning

This thesis deals with emotional and social influences on childhood somatic complaints. Strong support is provided for the idea that negative affect contributes to the development of somatic complaints in childhood. In addition, the studies described give information about the type and levels of negative affect associated with somatic complaints in childhood. When appraisal is characterized by the experience of little control over negative situations and emotions, this is likely to directly cause more feelings of negative affect and also to contribute to a more negative processing of emotions: children who feel little control evidently use more maladaptive emotion regulation strategies. This negative emotional processing further contributes to negative affect and subsequent somatic complaints. These relationships between negative affect and somatic complaints are even present at subclinical levels of emotional problems. With regard to social problems, it is found that they have an effect on somatic complaints that is fully mediated by aspects of children’s emotional functioning: self-perceived social problems indicate lower feelings of control and more maladaptive emotion regulation.LEI Universiteit LeidenDevelopmental pathways of social-emotional and cognitive functioning - ou

Do parents reinforce somatic complaints in their children?

OBJECTIVE: To examine the influence of parental solicitousness on self-reported somatic complaints in school-age children. DESIGN AND MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Participants were 564 children (mean age 10 years) and their parents. Children completed self-report measures of somatic complaints, parental solicitousness, depressiveness, fear, and sense of coherence. Somatic complaints were assessed again 6 months later. Parents also completed a questionnaire about solicitousness. RESULTS: Parental solicitousness as reported by children or parents was unrelated to the frequency of self-reported somatic complaints. Symptoms of depression, fear, and lower sense of coherence were associated with more somatic complaints, but did not interact with parental solicitousness. CONCLUSION: Parental solicitousness seems unrelated to more frequent somatic complaints in schoolchildren