Perceptualand Motor Skills, 2001, 92,456-458. 0 Perceptual and Motor SkLUs 2001 ANXIETY SENSITMTY AND FEAR OF PAIN IN CHILDREN ' PETER MURIS, JOHAN W. S. VLAEYEN, COR MEESTERS, AND SONJA VERTONGEN Maastricht University Strmmary.-Associations among scores on scales of anxiety sensitivity and trait anxiety and a fear of pain questionnaire were examined for 118 children. Analysis showed that anxiety sensitivity was positively and substantially related to fear of pain in the children. Furthermore, the data suggested anxiety sensiuvity to be a better pre- dictor of fear of pain than trait anxiety. Fear of pain has been implicated as the vehicle behind the development and maintenance of chronic pain. Cognitive-behavioral models (Lethem, Slade, Troup, & Bentley, 1983; Vlaeyen & Linton, 2000) conceptualize the etiology of chronic pain as a vicious circle in which fear of pain initiates avoidance behavior and this, in turn, contributes to deconditioning (e.g., muscular atrophy, decreased mobility, weight gain). The latter wdl maintain and enhance pain experiences, thereby fueling fear of pain and avoidance behavior. Anxiety sensitivity is defined as the predisposit-ional tendency to fear anxiety-related bodily sensations and the potential harmful somatic, psycho- logical, or social consequences associated with these sensations (Taylor, 1995). Asmundson (1999) has recently proposed that fear of pain, at least in part, is mediated by anxiety sensitivity. Evidence for this idea comes from a st-udy by Asmundson and Norton (1995). In that study, chronic back pain patients with high anxiety sensitivity reported more fear of pain and tended to have greater avoidance of activities than patients with low anxiety sensitiv- ity, despite equivalence of measured pain. In subsequent research with pa- tients reporting pain from chronic musculoskeletal injury, Asmundson and Taylor (1996) found evidence to suggest that anxiety sensitivity drectly exac- erbates fear of pain, which, in turn, resulted in avoidance behavior. Altogeth- er, these findings fit with the theoretical assumption that anxiety sensitivity should be regarded as a vulnerabhty factor for the development of a wide range of specific fears (Taylor & Fedoroff, 1999), including fear of pain (Asmundson, Norton, & Norton, 1999). Research in child populations has also indicated that anxiety sensitivity is related to fear associated with the anxiety disorders, in particular, panic 'Address enquiries to Dr. P. Muris, Department of Medical, Clinical, and Experimental Psy- chology, Maastricht University, P.O. Box 616, 6200 MD Maastricht, The Netherlands or e-mail (p.muris@dep.unimaas.nl).