Young People, Pain, and Everyday Life: A study of self-management

Young People, Pain, and Everyday Life – a research opportunity

I am a PhD researcher at the University of Stirling, looking to speak with young people aged 13–19 who live with long-term musculoskeletal pain (pain in the muscles, joints, or bones lasting three months or longer), and with their parents or carers.

The study is about how young people manage long-term pain in everyday life – what helps, what makes it harder, and how the people around them are involved. Taking part means one relaxed, one-to-one interview, usually online, at a time that suits.

What this study is about

Some young people live with pain in their muscles, joints or bones – backs, knees, hips, limbs – that lasts for months or years. Most of the time there is no quick fix. Instead, young people are expected to “self-manage”: to find ways of living around and with the pain, at school, at home, with friends, on the days it’s bad and the days it’s better.

Research so far has mostly treated self-management as a set of skills to be taught. When you listen to young people themselves, it looks bigger than that: it is tied up with who they are, who believes them, and how the people around them respond. This study listens properly.

What taking part involves

I will be interviewing young people aged 13–19 living with chronic musculoskeletal pain, and parents and carers, about how self-management is really learned and lived – especially during the years when young people move from being looked after through their pain to being expected to handle it more independently. Interviews are online, one to one, and last about an hour. There are no right or wrong answers. Recruitment is UK-wide.

Taking part is voluntary, and a small thank-you is offered for taking part. Deciding not to take part will never affect anyone’s care.

Why it matters

Young people in pain are often disbelieved – told they look fine, that it’s growing pains, stress, or too much time on their phones. Support that is designed for them without being designed with them often misses. This research aims to help clinicians, families and services understand self-management as young people actually experience it, so that support can be built with them rather than handed to them.

Data and privacy

Interviews are confidential within the limits of keeping people safe: if something suggested a young person was at serious risk of harm, I would need to involve people whose job it is to help, and participants are told this clearly before anything begins. Data are handled under the University of Stirling’s data protection procedures and stored on University systems. Full details are in the University of Stirling Privacy Notice for Research Participants: https://www.stir.ac.uk/about/professional-services/student-academic-and-corporate-services/policy-and-planning/legal-compliance/data-protectiongdpr/privacy-notices/research-participants/

Who is behind it

I’m Catherine Cairns Leyman, a PhD researcher at the Centre for Health and Community Research, University of Stirling, supervised by Professor Emma France and Dr Line Caes. The research is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) through the Scottish Graduate School of Social Science. The study has ethical approval from the University of Stirling NHS, Invasive or Clinical Research (NICR) committee (ref. NICR 2026 27105 21205).

Find out more

To find out more, with no obligation, visit the study page: https://painandeverydaylife.stir.ac.uk

Or contact Catherine Cairns Leyman, PhD Researcher, University of Stirling: cac18@stir.ac.uk