The aim of the present study has been to analyze the relationship between the use of not previously trained, diverse acute pain coping strategies and levels of pain intensity and pain tolerance in a group of healthy participants. Previous research has analyzed the usefulness of the training of these strategies after several training sessions, but adequate patient training requires a great deal of time. Two hundred and forty healthy people participated in the study. Pain coping strategies was evaluated with a version of CSQ-S. Subsequently, the participants completed a cold pressor test and tolerance test. After that, subjects filled in the adaptation of the CSQ-S about the strategies which they had employed throughout the test. Correlation analyses showed a positive relationship between pain intensity and catastrophizing, distractor behaviors, hoping and ignoring the pain. Pain tolerance correlated with self-instructions, ignoring the pain, reinterpreting the pain, catastrophizing and faith and praying. Regression analyses showed that catastrophizing was found to be the strategy that most predicts the variance of pain intensity, and catastrophizing (negative) and ignoring the pain (positive) and praying (negative) were the most predictive ones for pain tolerance. This is the first laboratory study that identifies the more useful pain coping strategies which can be used by patients without previous training in an acute pain context. The results of this study could be useful in the development of protocols for nurses and other health professionals, especially for situations where potentially painful techniques are to be applied to patients.

Chronic pain can challenge effective parenting by limiting functional capacity and increasing vulnerability to stress. Within a process-based framework, pain acceptance—an element of psychological flexibility—may shape how parents manage pain-related demands during caregiving. This study examined associations between pain acceptance, pain intensity, pain interference in parenting, and parental stress in parents with chronic pain. A cross-sectional design was employed with 200 parents diagnosed with chronic pain. Participants completed the Chronic Pain Acceptance Questionnaire (CPAQ), the Parenting Tasks Interference Scale (PTI), and the Parental Stress Scale (PSS). Structural equation modeling (SEM) was conducted with robust estimation, and a serial mediation model (PROCESS Model 6) was used to estimate indirect effects using 5000 bootstrap resamples. Higher pain acceptance was associated with lower pain intensity and reduced interference in parenting. Pain interference, in turn, was related to higher parental stress, whereas pain intensity showed no direct association with stress. Serial mediation analyses showed a significant indirect association between pain acceptance and parental stress through pain interference, as well as a significant sequential indirect association involving pain intensity and pain interference. The indirect association through pain intensity alone was not significant. Model fit was excellent (CFI = 0.998; RMSEA = 0.021). The findings suggest that parental stress is more closely associated with pain acceptance and engagement in valued caregiving than with pain intensity. Process-based interventions targeting acceptance may be relevant for supporting family well-being.