Italian Version of the Pain Catastrophizing Scale for Children (PCS-CIV)
Michele Simeone, Gabrielle Coppola, Antonietta Curci, Stefania Ferrante, Amedeo Stella, Maria Grazia Foschino Barbaro
Pain catastrophizing is a concept recognized as being one of the most powerful psychological determinants of sufferance and pain-related disability. The development of the Pain Catastrophizing Scale for Children (PCS-C) has greatly contributed to research in this area. The aim of this investigation was to validate the Italian version of PCS-C (PCS-CIV) by testing its factor structure, internal consistency and criterion related validity. In study 1 (438 participants; 40.4% males; 8-17 years) we tested the structure of the PCS-CIV through an Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and we subsequently checked the appropriateness of the solutions to the two subsamples of respondents (aged 8-11 and 12-17) by running separate dimensional analyses. In study 2 (351 participants; 44.2% males; 8-20 years) we aimed at replicating the same structure obtained for Study 1 in a new sample of respondents, by checking the appropriateness of one-, two-, and three-dimensional solutions. The results suggested that a 2-factor model derived from the PCA best represented the data, and it is to be preferred to the 3-factor solution. Our findings show that the PCS-CIV is a valid and reliable measure that provides interpretable scores for Italian-speaking children and adolescents.
Keywords
Pain Catastrophizing, PCS-C, Children, Adolescents, Validation study.
