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AIM: To explore the experience of pain in 10- to 12-year-old children. METHODS: This interview study included students (n = 42) in grade 4-6 in focus groups (n = 10) in southern Sweden (52% girls); mean age, 11.3 years (range 10-12 years). The interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim and analysed with qualitative content analysis. RESULTS: The analysis resulted in one theme: Pain as a unique experience for each individual, which was divided into five categories: (a) Feeling bodily pain; (b) Pain related to the school environment and schoolwork; (c) Internal pain related to sorrow and grief; (d) Pain related to conflicts and remorse; and (e) Pain can be good. CONCLUSION: The children made distinctions between physical pain and emotional pain. Bullying, noisy school environments, grief and remorse were reported to be linked with headaches, stomachache and heartache.

The study explored experiences of stress in children aged 10-12. An inductive qualitative design was used. Ten focus group interviews were conducted with Swedish schoolchildren (n = 42) aged 10-12. The interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim, and analyzed using qualitative content analysis. The study identified one theme-"Body and mind react"-and three subthemes: (1) Friendships matters, (2) Parental stress affect, and (3) Trying to do my best. Stress often occurred in the children's everyday environment. The children had experienced how stress could be expressed both physically and mentally, inside and outside school. The children also had the experience of seeing people in their environment being stressed, which could create feelings that affected the children. The experience of the children was also that stress can sometimes be good. Stress related to peers, family, school, and society was commonly experienced by children aged 10-12. Both positive and negative stress was reported.