Taking place in the skies over London, the plazas of Rotterdam, and the hallways of museums worldwide, a new kind of art has emerged since the 1990s.Known as Relational Art, this conceptual practice features audience participation in ways never before realised, often using new media and social networking. In this book, academic and artist Craig Smith outlines a rigorous theory of Relational Art, explaining why audience interaction and collective art production has become so relevant. Tracing the development of the movement, from its beginnings with the 1996 Traffic exhibition in Bordeaux and Nicolas Bourriaud's treatiseRelational Aesthetics, to the diverse and international scope of Relational Art today, this provocative book explores the foundational impact this movement has had on contemporary art and exhibition making. Taking the reader through a range of case studies, such as Olafur Eliasson's iconic Weather Project at Tate Modern, and uniting ideas from artists, art critics, curators, philosophers and audience members, it reveals the practices integral to the movement and how these have affected aesthetic, theoretical and economic forces in the art world. Through a guided tour of thought-provoking and influential works, he demonstrates that Relational Art has permanently altered the nature of art and its global audiences.
The MHLC-C is a condition-specific instrument measuring the internal and external loci of control beliefs, adaptable to various health conditions. Translated into Swedish and Chinese, this study aims to translate the MHLC-C into German using the FACID-Method. The English version is validated and reliable; the German version requires these validation steps.
Appraisal theory assumes that the individual variability of emotional reactions to the same situation is due to individual differences in appraisal. However, the question of how interindividual differences in appraisal come about has been rarely formally addressed. We focus on one of the central dimensions of appraisal-problem-focused coping potential-and attempt to explain individual differences in appraisals along this dimension using self-efficacy theory. We integrate outcome expectancies, self-efficacy expectations, and problem-focused coping potential into a single framework and outline their personality antecedents. Using generalized self-efficacy beliefs as an example, we then discuss the mechanisms underlying the effects of personality dispositions on appraisal and the conditions that moderate their influence. We conclude with the implications for theory, research, and practice.
Chronic abdominal pain (CAP) represents a common pediatric primary pain disorder that can have long-term effects on physical and mental health into adulthood. Pediatric CAP and Control cohorts recruited in childhood (∼11 years old, T1) and then assessed in emerging adulthood (∼20 years old, T2) were evaluated again for health outcomes in early adulthood (∼30 years old, T3) for the current study. Further, the study evaluated the mental and physical health of offspring of participants who had become parents. Participants who agreed to enroll at T3 (CAP: n = 90, Control: n = 55) completed measures regarding current health, health-related quality of life (HRQoL), and their child's health when applicable. Results indicated close to 20% of the CAP cohort reported recurrent CAP across all 3 timepoints. Participants with current CAP reported poorer HRQoL compared to participants with remitted CAP who reported poorer HRQoL compared to Control participants. The CAP cohort reported higher health-related anxiety compared to the Control cohort regardless of current pain status. CAP compared to Control participants reported greater emotional problems and fewer conduct problems in their children. Longitudinal studies are needed to assess the developmental course of pediatric chronic pain and intergenerational pathways of risk and resilience. Perspective: This article evaluates patterns of chronic abdominal pain from childhood into early adulthood. Patients with pediatric chronic abdominal pain continue to present with health-related anxiety in adulthood and report greater emotional problems in offspring.
OBJECTIVE:Neighborhood socioeconomic status (SES) is linked to self-reported pain severity and disability but its association with evoked pain responsiveness in individuals with chronic pain remains unclear. The present study examined relations between neighborhood SES, assessed through the area deprivation index (ADI), and static and dynamic pain response indices. It was hypothesized that youth with functional abdominal pain (FAP) living in lower SES neighborhoods would exhibit lower pain threshold, lower pain tolerance, and reduced conditioned pain modulation (CPM) compared to youth living in higher SES neighborhoods. METHODS:Participants were 183 youth with FAP and their parents. Youth completed a quantitative sensory testing protocol. Family addresses were used to compute ADI scores. Thermal stimuli for pain threshold and tolerance were delivered to participants' forearms using thermodes. CPM, an index of descending pain inhibition, was determined using a thermode as test stimulus and a hot water bath as conditioning stimulus. RESULTS:As hypothesized, youth with FAP living in lower SES neighborhoods exhibited weaker CPM. Contrary to hypotheses, lower neighborhood SES was associated with neither pain thresholds nor with pain tolerance. CONCLUSIONS:These findings demonstrated the independent contribution of place of residence-an often neglected component of the biopsychosocial model-to efficiency of descending pain inhibition. Understanding the mechanisms that account for such associations between place and pain could guide the development of public health and policy initiatives designed to mitigate chronic pain risk in underserved and economically marginalized communities.
COVID-19 has had a devastating impact on people worldwide. We conducted an international survey (n = 3646) examining the degree to which people's appraisals and coping activities around the pandemic predicted their health and well-being. We obtained subsamples from 12 countries-Bangladesh, Bulgaria, China, Colombia, India, Israel, the Netherlands, Norway, Peru, Portugal, Turkey and the United States. For each, we assessed appraisals and coping strategies as well as indicators of physical and mental health and well-being. Results indicated that, despite mean-level societal differences in outcomes, the pattern of appraisals and coping strategies predicting health and well-being was consistent across countries. Use of disengagement coping (particularly behavioural disengagement and self-isolation) was associated with relatively negative outcomes. In contrast, optimistic appraisals (particularly of high accommodation-focused coping potential and the ability to meet one's physical needs), use of problem-focused coping strategies (especially problem-solving) and accommodative coping strategies (especially positive reappraisal and self-encouragement) were associated with relatively positive outcomes. Our study highlights the critical importance of considering accommodative coping in stress and coping research. It also provides important information on how people have been dealing with the pandemic, the predictors of well-being under pandemic conditions and the generality of such relations.
Objectives: Youth with functional abdominal pain (FAP) experience significant pain-related distress and functional impairment. Although quantitative sensory testing protocols have identified alterations in pain modulatory systems that distinguish youth with FAP from healthy controls, the extent to which evoked pain responses predict subsequent trajectories of pain symptoms and disability over and above established psychosocial risk factors is unclear. Methods: The present study included 183 adolescents with FAP who were enrolled in a randomized controlled trial comparing an 8-week, internet-delivered program of cognitive behavior therapy (n=90) or pain education (n=93). Participants completed a quantitative sensory testing protocol before the intervention and were followed for 12-month posttreatment. Results: Whereas adolescents with FAP who exhibited stronger baseline conditioned pain modulation (CPM) reported decreases in pain-related interference over follow-up (b=-0.858, SE=0.396, P=0.032), those with weaker CPM exhibited high, relatively stable levels of pain-related interference over time (b=-0.642, SE=0.400, P=0.110). CPM status predicted changes in pain-related interference after controlling for the effects of treatment condition and psychosocial risk factors. Static measures of pain sensitivity (ie, pain threshold, pain tolerance) and temporal summation of second pain were not associated with changes in measures of abdominal pain, gastrointestinal symptom severity, or pain-related interference over follow-up. Discussion: The present findings contribute to a growing literature on the predictive utility of quantitative sensory testing indices and suggest that CPM may complement existing psychosocial risk measures in determining individualized pain-related risk profiles.
ABSTRACT Inconsistent results of psychological treatments for pediatric functional abdominal pain (FAP) may be due to heterogeneity of patients' pain-related psychological characteristics. This randomized controlled trial tested whether statistically derived patient subgroups (high pain dysfunctional [HPD], high pain adaptive [HPA], and low pain adaptive [LPA]) moderated response to cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) for adolescents with FAP and their parents (n = 278 dyads; patients were 66% female, mean [SD] age was 14.62 [1.88] years, and parents were 95% female). Randomization to Internet-delivered CBT vs Internet-delivered pain education (EDU) was stratified by patient subgroup. Follow-up assessments of gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms (primary outcome), abdominal pain, and pain interference were at midtreatment, posttreatment, 6 months, and 12 months. Data were analysed using linear mixed effects models. Significant treatment × subgroup × time interaction effects showed that patient subgroup significantly moderated the effect of treatment on GI symptoms (t[853 = -2.93, P = 0.003) and abdominal pain (t(844) = -2.14, P = 0.03) across the treatment period. Among HPD youth, those in CBT had significantly greater GI symptom reduction than those in EDU through posttreatment. By contrast, among HPA and LPA youth, symptom improvement did not differ by treatment condition. Furthermore, among all patients assigned to CBT, HPD youth demonstrated significantly greater reductions in GI symptoms compared with HPA and LPA youth and greater reductions in abdominal pain compared with LPA youth. All subgroups maintained symptom reductions throughout the follow-up period. Results suggest that subgrouping FAP patients may inform treatment allocation and optimize treatment response.
OBJECTIVE Stigma is associated with many health conditions, including chronic pain. Research on health-related stigma is limited by the lack of validated instruments that distinguish among various stigma-related constructs. We aimed to develop and validate such a measure for pediatric functional abdominal pain (FAP). Felt stigma (FS) was defined as comprising both perceived and internalized stigma. Stigma concealment (SC) was defined as efforts by stigmatized individuals to prevent others from learning of their condition. METHODS Using a theory-driven approach, we adapted items from existing self-report measures of stigma to construct the health-related FS and Concealment Questionnaire (FSC-Q). Patients with FAP (N = 179, ages 11-17) completed the preliminary FSC-Q and health-related measures hypothesized to be associated with stigma. Cognitive interviewing and exploratory factor analysis (EFA) informed the final version of the measure. RESULTS EFA identified a 2-factor model comprised of FS and SC. The FS and SC scales exhibited good internal consistency and construct validity. Consistent with study hypotheses, both factors were significantly associated with anxiety, depression, pain catastrophizing, pain threat, physical symptoms, and pain interference/disability. Higher FS was associated with higher mental healthcare utilization. The subset of participants meeting criteria for irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) reported higher FS and SC compared with those without IBS. CONCLUSION The FSC-Q may help advance research on health-related stigma in FAP and other chronic health conditions by allowing for assessment of distinct stigma-related constructs.
The literatures on emotion, stress, and coping have yet to merge and foster an understanding of adaptation, from cognitive appraisal to emotion to coping. Here we examined relationships between these constructs across a college semester. In Study 1, we surveyed 89 students on their appraisals and emotions before and after exams in an introductory chemistry course. Perceived difficulty was greater before exams, whereas accommodative coping potential was greater after receiving exam grades. In parallel with these changes in appraisal, fluctuations in challenge/determination, tranquility, and anxiety/fear occurred across time. We extended these findings in Study 2 by additionally assessing coping among 119 students in an introductory psychology course. Determination correlated with the use of engagementrelated coping strategies, whereas sadness/resignation was associated with decreased engagement-related coping. The present studies clarify how appraisal, emotion, and coping unfold and relate to each other across time, while also providing unique profiles of appraisal and coping for distinct negative and positive emotions.
Objectives: Prior work in a cohort of youth with functional abdominal pain (FAP) identified patient subgroups (High Pain Dysfunctional, High Pain Adaptive, Low Pain Adaptive) that predicted differences in the course of FAP from childhood into young adulthood. We aimed to replicate these subgroups in a new sample of adolescents with FAP using the original classification algorithm and to extend subgroup characteristics to include parental characteristics and health service use. Methods: Adolescents (n=278; ages 11 to 17 y, 66% females) presenting to a gastroenterology clinic for abdominal pain, and their parents (92% mothers) completed self-report measures; adolescents also completed a 7-day pain diary. Results: The replicated patient subgroups exhibited distress and impairment similar to subgroups in the original sample. Moreover, in novel findings, the High Pain Dysfunctional subgroup differed from other subgroups by the predominance of mother-daughter dyads jointly characterized by high levels of anxiety, depressive symptoms, pain behavior, and pain catastrophizing. The High Pain Dysfunctional subgroup used more health care services than Low Pain Adaptive but did not differ from High Pain Adaptive. Discussion: Findings replicate and extend the original FAP classification and suggest that the subgroups have unique patient and parent features that may reflect distinct illness mechanisms requiring different treatments.
We used a retrospective survey (N = 346) to model the patterns of appraisal, motivation, and coping that uniquely correspond with 12 positive emotions (affection/love, amusement, awe, challenge/determination, compassion, gratitude, happiness/joy, hope, interest, pride, relief, and serenity/tranquillity). Generally, we conceptually replicated previously demonstrated appraisal profiles of positive emotion while also examining how additional appraisals differentiate among positive emotions. We then uncovered the motivational goals and coping processes associated with each positive emotion. We discuss the implications of our findings for future research on positive emotion.
Having a parent with chronic pain (CP) may confer greater risk of persistence of CP from childhood into young adulthood. Social learning, such as parental modeling and reinforcement, represents one plausible mechanism for the transmission of risk of CP from parents to offspring. Based on a 7-day pain diary in 154 pediatric patients with functional abdominal CP, we tested a model in which parental CP predicted adolescents' daily average CP severity and functional impairment (distal outcomes) via parental modeling of pain behaviors and parental reinforcement of adolescent's pain behaviors (mediators) and adolescents' cognitive appraisals of pain threat (proximal outcome representing adolescents' encoding of parents' behaviors). Results indicated significant indirect pathways from parental CP status to adolescent average daily pain severity (b = 0.18, SE = 0.08, 95% confidence interval: 0.04-0.31, P = 0.03) and functional impairment (b = 0.08, SE = 0.04, 95% confidence interval: 0.02-0.15, P = 0.03) over the 7-day diary period via adolescents' observations of parent pain behaviors and adolescent pain threat appraisal. The indirect pathway through parental reinforcing responses to adolescents' pain did not reach significance for either adolescent pain severity or functional impairment. Identifying mechanisms of increased risk of pain and functional impairment in children of parents with CP ultimately could lead to targeted interventions aimed at improving functioning and quality of life in families with CP. Parental modeling of pain behaviors represents a potentially promising target for family-based interventions to ameliorate pediatric CP.
Background:In healthy individuals, elevated resting blood pressure (BP) is associated with reduced pain responsiveness and lower temporal summation. Prior work indicates that this BP-related hypoalgesia is reduced in individuals with chronic pain.Purpose:This study evaluated whether resolution of chronic pain was associated with greater BP-related hypoalgesia compared to nonresolution.Methods:From a prospective sample of adolescents and young adults diagnosed with chronic functional abdominal pain an average of 9 years earlier, 99 individuals in whom the condition had resolved and 51 individuals with ongoing abdominal pain were studied. Resting systolic BP was assessed, followed by evaluation of thermal pain threshold and tolerance, and assessment of temporal summation to thermal pain stimuli.Results:Higher resting systolic BP was significantly associated with higher pain threshold and tolerance, and lower temporal summation only in the group with resolved functional abdominal pain (p < .05). Hierarchical regressions revealed that interactions between BP and resolution of chronic pain were significant only for pain tolerance (p < .05). Analyses by sex indicated that interactions between BP and resolution status were significant for the temporal summation outcome in males but not in females.Conclusions:Results suggest that BP-related hypoalgesic mechanisms may be more effective in individuals in whom chronic pain has resolved compared to those with ongoing chronic pain. Findings hint at sex differences in the extent to which resolution of chronic pain is associated with BP-related hypoalgesia. Whether greater BP-related hypoalgesia is a consequence of, or alternatively a contributor to, resolution of chronic pain warrants further investigation.
Considerable research links chronic pain to autonomic nervous system (ANS) dysfunction, specifically low heart rate variability (HRV) mediated by reduced parasympathetic activity. However, little is known about factors that influence ANS function in chronic pain. The ANS is the primary pathway for brain-gut communication, making it of particular interest in gastrointestinal disorders, such as irritable bowel syndrome, characterized by functional abdominal pain (FAP). We evaluated the relation of sex, pain severity, and psychological stress to ANS function in adolescents/young adults from a database of pediatric FAP and control participants enrolled 8 years earlier in a prospective study of pain. At follow-up in adolescence/young adulthood (Mean age -19.46, SD -3.48), we classified participants as Pain-Remit (n = 130), Pain-Persist (n = 96), and pain-free controls (n = 123). We recorded electrocardiogram data at rest and during laboratory stressors. Results demonstrated significantly lower HRV in Pain-Persist females compared with Pain-Remit females, female controls, and all males regardless of pain category. Spectral analysis of electrocardiogram showed that Pain-Persist females had reduced power in the high frequency domain of cardiac activity, ie, reduced parasympathetic "braking" of sympathetic activity, both at rest and during stress. Pain-Remit females exhibited levels of autonomic imbalance intermediate between those of females with persistent FAP and all other participants. Parasympathetically mediated low HRV in young women with persistent FAP may reflect a peripheral mechanism (eg, gut dysfunction) or a central nervous system mechanism (eg, pain amplification or poor emotion self-regulation) involving prolonged sympathetic activation.
aLaboratory of Neuroimmunopathology, Institute of General Pathology and Pathophysiology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia bR&D Department, GLMED Longevity & Beauty Residence, Moscow, Russia E-mail address: [email protected] (D. M. Davydov)