The child's perception of the disease and the experience of pain in juvenile chronic arthritis.

Interviews conducted among 39 children with juvenile chronic arthritis supported the hypothesis that the meaning which the child attributes to sensations originating in his joints influences the extent to which those sensations constitute pain. Children in both 6-11 and 12-17 age groups reported similar qualities of sensation from their affected joints, but the older children attributed a more unpleasant meaning to their sensations because of their greater understanding of the significance of internal pathology. By association, the 12-17s consequently reported joint sensations specifically, as more unpleasant and stronger than did the 6-11s.