Research Themes and Information

This is an illustrated image of three people. On the left hand side is a boy in a grey wheelchair wearing a yellow top and dark blue trousers, he is reading a book and on top of the book rests a red bird with a yellow beak. To the left of the image is a girl wearing blue dungarees and a yellow top. She is sat on a blue beanbag chair, and reading a light blue book. There is a red bird flying out of the book. At the bottom left of the image is a girl lying on her front wearing light blue trousers and a yellow top. An open book is rested under her elbows, and a red bird is sitting on the pages.

Our group of researchers explore the experiences and perceptions of children and young people, and their families, living with pain.

Our Lab's Story

At the heart of the Pain Stories Lab is a focus on exploring the experiences of children and young people, and their families, who live with pain, through their stories.

Stories are told through what we say, what we hear, the photos we take, the art we create, the media we consume, and the books that we read. We focus on learning how pain is understood and experienced from these different types of stories.

In our Lab, we believe that stories form who we are and shape our development. Stories about pain are needed to help us to understand the impact of living with pain on the whole child or young person and their family.

The stories that children and young people, and their families, share are powerful and are told for a reason. Stories are therapeutic; they empower individuals and place them as the expert in their own pain journey.

We use creative methods to give voice to children and young people with lived experience of pain, as well as their families and clinicians.

Our research themes

Pain and development

How stories about pain shape our identity, relationships, and selves.

Pain in the media

The stories we're exposed to as a society through television, films, books, and social media.

Creative and innovative methods in pain research

We use a range of methods and analyses to make sense of pains stories told through word of mouth, photos, art, and media. We use methods and analysis approaches including:

interpretative phenomenological analysis
reflexive thematic analysis
socio-narratology
qualitative content analysis
linguistic analysis
story completion
observational coding

Clinician-patient communication

How patients (and family members) tell their stories to clinicians, and how clinicians hear and respond to these stories.

Diagnostic uncertainty

Why people disagree with and dispute medical diagnoses of pain, whereas others ‘buy in’ to their chronic pain diagnoses.

Menstrual pain

How menstrual pain is experienced, discussed and understood by young people and within society.