About

Jessica Edwards George is a Clinical Professor in Counseling Psychology at the Department of Applied Psychology within Bouvé College of Health Sciences at Northeastern University. She serves as the Director of Clinical Training for the Counseling and School Psychology Programs. Her role involves overseeing clinical training components and contributing to the development of programs in counseling psychology. Her research focus, background, and key contributions are not detailed in the provided page text.

Research topics

• Psychiatry
• Clinical psychology
• Medicine
• Physical therapy
• Psychology
• Developmental psychology

Selected publications

• Agreement between child self-report and parent-proxy report for functioning in pediatric chronic pain

  Journal of Patient-Reported Outcomes · 2024 · 9 citations

  • Medicine
  • Physical therapy
  • Clinical psychology

  PURPOSE: Accurate assessment of chronic pain and functional disability in children and adolescents is imperative for guiding pain management interventions. Parents have multifaceted roles in their child's pain experience and frequently provide parent-proxy reports of pain-related functioning. However, cross-informant variance is often observed with limited understanding of contributing factors. This study aims to examine the degree of alignment between child and parent-proxy reports for Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS) pain interference domain among children with chronic pain and to identify factors associated with improved child-parent agreement. METHODS: This study includes a sample of 127 youth (66.1% female) with mixed etiology chronic pain, ranging in age from 8 to 17 (M = 12.24; SD = 1.598), and their parent. Data was collected at an interdisciplinary pediatric pain clinic and online peer support groups. Measures of demographic, pain intensity, and functioning were collected. RESULTS: Means of parent-proxy reports were significantly lower than child self-reports on the PROMIS (p < 0.05). A statistically significant association between child's pain intensity (β = 0.953, P < 0.05) and the difference between child self-reported and parent-proxy reported PROMIS functional interference scores was found. CONCLUSION: Parents underestimated pain-related functional disability relative to children's self-reports. The difference between the paired child self-report and parent-proxy report of functional disability was significantly associated with greater child self-reported pain intensity. Although parent-proxy reports in pediatric chronic pain is often used in research and practice, findings underscore the importance of incorporating child and adolescent self-report, when possible, to comprehensively capture the child's pain experience and best inform clinical interventions.

  DOI

• Parent Psychological Flexibility in Pediatric Chronic Pain

  Research Square (Research Square) · 2023

  • Clinical psychology
  • Psychology
  • Medicine

  Abstract Pediatric chronic pain is embedded in a broader social context, especially within parent-youth relationships. Parent risk factors have been associated with poor functional outcomes in youth with chronic pain. Research delineating the adaptive role of parent psychological flexibility in the context of pediatric chronic pain remains limited. The study applied a biopsychosocial and ecological framework towards understanding adaptive influences of parental responses to youth’s pain related functional outcomes. The study aims to examine associations between adaptive parental responses and youth’s functional disability, specifically related to parent psychological flexibility. 127 youth (66.1% female) with mixed etiology chronic pain, ranging in age from 8 to 17 years ( M = 12.24; SD = 1.598), and their parent or guardian participated in the study at an interdisciplinary pediatric pain clinic within a public hospital and online pain peer support groups. Measures of demographic and pain characteristics, youth’s functional disability, pain acceptance, and parent psychological flexibility were collected. Regression results indicated that youth’s reported pain intensity [ B = 3.01, SE = 0.441, p &lt; .0005], and parent psychological flexibility [ B = -0.006, SE = 0.003, p = 0.042] were independently associated with youth’s self-reported functional disability. Findings underscore the importance of assessing parental factors when examining pain-related functional disability in pediatric chronic pain. Findings further support how parent psychological flexibility positively impacts youth’s pain related functioning. Implications highlight the need for inclusion of parents as targets for change in clinical interventions and may further optimize treatments aimed at improving the functioning of youth with pain by addressing parent coping. Perspective: The article explores the adaptive role of parent psychological flexibility in the context of pediatric chronic pain. Findings underscore the importance of assessing parental factors when examining pain related functional disability and support targeting parents in clinical interventions to optimize pediatric pain-related functional outcomes.

  DOI

Frequent coauthors

• Christie J. Rizzo

  10 shared

• Joan W. Hanania

  Northeastern University

  7 shared

• Laura H. Goldstein

  University of Pennsylvania

  7 shared

• Justin Manjourides

  Northeastern University

  4 shared

• Shailaja Jamma

  2 shared

• Daniel A. Leffler

  2 shared

• Melinda Dennis

  Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center

  2 shared

• Ciarán P. Kelly

  Harvard University

  2 shared

Labs

• Applied PsychologyPI

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