Preliminary validation of the Turkish version of the pain catastrophizing scale for children and parents (PCS-C and PCS-P) in primary childhood headache

Objectives:The aims of this study were to translate the pain catastrophizing scale for children and parents (PCS-C and PCS-P) into Turkish (TurPCS-C and TurPCS-P) and evaluate the psychometric properties in children with primary headache.Methods: Exploratory factor analysis was used to test the construct validity. Reliability was measured using item-total score correlation, internal consistency (Cronbach alpha coefficient), Cronbach alpha if the item was deleted, and test-retest correlation. Con-current validity and convergent validity of the scales were correlated with other scales (Revised Children's Anxiety and Depres-sion Scale [RCADS], RCADS Parent RCADS-P, Quality of Life Scale for Children [PedsQL], and PedsQL-Parents [PedsQL-P]) and some related features (pain intensity, mobile phone usage time, and headache duration).Results: Of the 80 children participating in the study, 55 (68.8%) were girls and 25 (31.2%) were boys. It was determined that the original three-factor structure was not supported for TurPCS-C and TurPCS-P. Cronbach alpha value was 0.871 for TurPCS-C consisting of 12 items, and Cronbach alpha value was 0.890 for TurPCS-P consisting of 12 items. As the PedsQL score increased, there was a negative correlation (p<0.05, r=-0.575) in all three areas of TurPCS-C, and there was a positive correlation (p<0.05) among the scores from the RCADS scale and TurPCS-C. Similarly, there was a negative correlation with PedsQL-P and TurPCS-P and positive correlation with RCADS-P and TurPCS-P (p<0.05 for each).Conclusion:TurPCS-C and TurPCS-P are an evaluation instrument with sufficient validity and reliability, and it can be reliably used to examine pediatric patients with primary headache.