Stressful Life Events Predicts Central Pain Symptoms

Hypotheses: (a) stressful life events will predict greater centralized pain symptoms and greater pain intensity; (b) greater anger and perceived injustice will both mediate the relationship between stressful life events and pain-related symptoms in parallel; and (c) stressful life events, anger, and perceived injustice will account for more variance of centralized pain symptoms than pain intensity. Recruitment: Participants were recruited via Prolific between July and September 2023. Eligibility included at least 18 years or older; residing in the U.S.; self-reporting chronic pain for at least 3 months; and identifying as African or Black/African American, Latino/Hispanic, or East, Southeast, or South Asian. Measures: Participants self-reported their age, gender, ethnicity, income, education, employment status, and health insurance. Participants self-reported following standardized measures: Stressful Life Events Questionnaire–Revised (Green et al., 2006); PROMIS Anger – Short Form (Schalet et al., 2016); Injustice Experience Questionnaire Short-Form (Sullivan et al., 2016); Central Sensitization Inventory: Part A (Mayer et al., 2012); and single item on pain intensity from PROMIS – 29 Profile v2.1 (Cella et al., 2010). Bivariate Correlations: Stressful life events (M = 3.56, SD = 2.76) were positively correlated with anger (r = .29, p < .001), perceived injustice (r = .36, p < .001), centralized pain symptoms (r = .33, p < .001), and pain intensity (r = .27, p < .001). Anger (M = 54.59, SD = 11.50) and perceived injustice (M = 4.54, SD = 3.04) were positively correlated to one another (r = .52, p < .001). Anger was positively correlated with centralized pain symptoms (r = .63, p < .001) and pain intensity (r = .39, p < .001). Perceived injustice was positively correlated with centralized pain symptoms (r = .59, p < .001) and pain intensity (r = .48, p < .001). Centralized pain symptoms (M = 37.95, SD = 18.60) and pain intensity (M = 3.80, SD = 2.16) were positively correlated to one another (r = .53, p < .001).