Children's Coping with Recurrent Headache

We investigated the relationships among perceptions of control over pain, gender, and coping responses in 57 school-aged children receiving services at a specialized pediatric headache clinic. Perceptions of control and gender interacted to predict frequency of active and negative coping responses. A wide range of coping strategies was reported, but only minimal gender or perceived control differences were found in the frequency and helpfulness of individual coping strategies. Results are discussed within the context of recent stress and coping models within the pediatric chronic illness literature.