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.

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.

Inclusion Criteria:

• to be schooled at the El Cim school
• to be between 10 and 16 years old (both included)
• to have or have had pain in the last month; to be able to read and write in Catalan and/or Spanish.

Exclusion Criteria:

• had an intellectual disability and/or cognitive impairment that interfered with their participation
• had not submitted the informed consent form duly completed and signed by their legal guardians

The participants in this study were a convenience sample of schoolchildren aged 10- 16 years from a charter school (Barcelona, Spain), a school large enough to have a sufficient sample.