Design:~Mixed (explanatory sequential). The primary endpoint of the study were explanations of the cause of pain recorded by means of an open-ended question.~Setting:~The participants were school-age children attending a charted school in the province of Barcelona.~Participants:~Of the 345 potential school participants, 306 agreed to participate. 36 pupils were excluded when applying the eligibility criteria, so the resulting sample was of 270.
The aims of this study are to explore what beliefs children and adolescents manifest about the cause of the pain they describe; to compare whether if there are differences between beliefs by age and by persistence of pain; and to relate explanations of the cause of pain with current scientific evidence to determine if these beliefs are erroneous.