Developmental changes in infant pain expression during immunization injections

K. D. Craig, R. J. McMahon, J. D. Morison and C. Zaskow

Social Science & Medicine, 1984, vol. 19, issue 12, 1331-1337

Abstract: Developmental changes in pain expression provoked by routine immunization injections during the first 2 years of life were examined. An interval-sampling, behavioral observation system was developed to code categories of expressive behavior in infants, their mothers and the nurse responsible for the injection. Qualitative changes were observed in the infants' behavior, with those less than 12 months of age responding in a more spontaneous, diffuse manner, whereas the older infants displayed more anticipatory distress, descriptive language and goal-directed movement. Mothers and the nurse actively interacted with each other and the infant with a range of vocal and nonvocal actions. The findings justified the use of unobtrusive, naturalistic observation as a means of assisting practitioners who suffer from an inadequate knowledge-base on pain in children.

Date: 1984
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0277-9536(84)90021-2
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:socmed:v:19:y:1984:i:12:p:1331-1337

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/supportfaq.cws_home/regional
http://www.elsevier. ... _01_ooc_1&version=01

Access Statistics for this article

Social Science & Medicine is currently edited by Ichiro (I.) Kawachi and S.V. (S.V.) Subramanian

More articles in Social Science & Medicine from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().