| Current research has demonstrated that spinal cord injury (SCI) pain has a great impact on and is affected by psychosocial functioning and quality of life (QOL). Therefore, there is a need to identify and increase understanding of SCI pain-specific variables. While some psychological predictors of pain such as pain catastrophizing, negative cognitions in response to pain, and anger are fairly well established, the role of problem-solving ability as a predicting variable has been previously unexplored. Thus, this study aimed to compare the predictive abilities of social problem-solving ability to the other established predictors as well as exploring the relationships among problem-solving ability, pain, and QOL. Sixty-seven veterans with SCI-related pain completed self-report questionnaires. Results indicate that social problem-solving ability, as well as some if its specific styles, predict pain over and above the previously determined variables. Additionally, while problem-solving ability was also found to significantly predict quality of life, regression analyses of pain on QOL, unexpectedly, did not yield significant results. Implications and future directions are discussed. |
