What?
Work package 2 will investigate the development of executive functions (EFs) in young people with and without musculoskeletal chronic pain (MCP) and the influence of socio-economic status (SES).
Research questions:
Do EF skills develop differently in young people with and without MCP?
How does SES influence the development of EF in young people with and without MCP?
How do EF skills influence pain interference in young people with MCP?
How does SES influence pain interference in young people with MCP?
Why?
EF skills support the ability of an individual to work towards goals and effortfully self-regulate behaviour (Blakemore & Choudhury, 2006). Though rapidly developing in adolescence and early adulthood, EF skills show inconsistent growth in young people (Blakemore & Choudhury, 2006), particularity those with low SES (Hackman et al., 2015) and appear impaired in chronic pain (Mifflin et al., 2016; Weiss et al., 2018). The implications of such impairments on young people’s capacity to engage in self-management tasks is not yet known. Furthermore, there is a lack of prospective evaluations directly comparing EF development in young people with and without chronic pain, as well as across various SES settings.
How?
We will use an existing large longitudinal dataset from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children to look at the development of EF people with and without MPC, and the interaction between SES and MCP in the development of EF.
When?
Work package 2 will begin at the end of 2025 and be completed by the end of 2026.