Parents' relationship to pain during children's cancer treatment - a preliminary validation of the Pain Flexibility Scale for Parents.

Pain is one of the most frequent and burdensome symptoms for children with cancer. Psychological acceptance has been shown to be beneficial in chronic pain. Acceptance-based interventions for experimentally induced pain have been shown to predict increased pain tolerance and decreased pain intensity. An acceptance-based pilot study for children with cancer experiencing pain has shown promising results. Further, parental acceptance has been shown to predict decreased child distress. To date, no instruments measuring acceptance in the context of acute pain in children are available. The aim of this study was to develop and evaluate an instrument to measure acceptance in parents of children experiencing pain during cancer treatment.