Samenvatting

This study aims to answer the following question:
“Is there a correlation between body awareness and coping with pain in people with chronic pain?
Objective The purpose of this study is to show connection between body awareness and coping with pain. That would be interesting for a psychomotor therapist to know in order to design treatments that meet the needs of the client even better. If this study shows any correlation, it means when body awareness changes, coping with pain is affected and vice versa.
Methods To measure body awareness this study used the Scale of Body Connection. The questionnaire consists twenty questions, with 12 items measuring the body awareness and 8 items measuring the degree of body dissociation (Price & Thompson, 2007). To measure coping with pain, the study used the Coping with Pain Questionnaire. In 44 questions the degree of eight coping strategies is measured: catastrophizing (6), perceived pain control (2), pray or hope (6), denial of pain sensations (6), reinterpreting pain sensations (6), be active (6), attention distraction (6) and addressing oneself positively (6) (Spinhoven et al., 1994). Through correlation calculations between these two questionnaires this study has to show, whether or not, there is a correlation between body awareness and coping with pain.
Results There are found significant correlations between body awareness and catastrophizing (r = -0,901), perceived pain control (r = 0,818), reinterpreting pain sensations (r = 0,847) and pray or hope (r = -0,759). There is also found a connection between body awareness and attention distraction (r = 0,563), only not significant. The study shows that body dissociation and be active (r = -0,502) and pray or hope (-0,809) are connected.
Conclusion It has been shown that there are positive and negative correlations between body awareness/dissociation and some of the eight pain coping strategies according Spinhoven et al. (1994).