ArticleEuropean journal of pain (London, England)2026
'Heroes Were (And Could Be) Created': An Exploration of Adolescents' Perspectives of Portrayals of Pain and Empathy in Media.
Article in European journal of pain (London, England), 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
1 citing paper in PubMed.
- 'Heroes Were (And Could Be) Created': An Exploration of Adolescents' Perspectives of Portrayals of Pain and Empathy in Media.European journal of pain (London, England) · 2026Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundResearch suggests that media consumption plays a role in socialization, including the socialization of painful experiences. Findings from previous research examining pain depictions in popular adolescent media suggest that violence and injuries are frequently represented, marginalized populations are underrepresented, and observers lack prosocial responses to sufferers' pain. This study was the first to examine how adolescents perceive, internalize, and discuss pain depictions in popular adolescent media.
methodsFourteen adolescents (between 13 and 18 years of age), both with and without chronic pain, participated in focus groups. Participants watched clips depicting pain in popular adolescent media before providing their feedback.
resultsUsing reflexive thematic analysis, three themes were generated: (1) a failure to communicate, but not to empathize-observers may be fearful or lack the tools and confidence to address sufferer pain, (2) media as the metric-media serves as the metric by which we can compare pain experiences, which may contribute to stigma and disbelief, and (3) media as the conduit for transformation-media may be harnessed to properly represent and build empathy for pain. SIGNIFICANCE: These novel findings suggest that media portrayals of pain may shape youths' beliefs about pain expression, validation, and empathy. Media could therefore serve as a modifiable target for reducing pain-related stigma and improving empathic responses to pain.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.