Coping Styles and Cardiovascular Health:

Heart Rate Variability Response to Stress

Kristen Kettler, Department of Psychology, College of Arts and Sciences

Honors CollegeJoseph Doster, Ph.D., Professor, Department of

Psychology

Introduction

Relationships of psychological and physiological variables are an important area of study

Different styles of coping have different implications for cardiovascular health

What effects do different styles of coping have on heart rate variability?

Literature Review: Cardiovascular Health

Cardiovascular Disease is the number one cause of death in the U.S. (CDC, 2005)

Important to examine relationships between cardiovascular disease and controllable factors

Early intervention may be key

Literature Review: Heart Rate Variability

Measure of changes in heart rate that vary by situation (Malik, 1996)

Can be used to measure relationships between physiological states and emotional ones (Appelhans & Luecken, 2006)

Certain types of emotion processing can lead to higher heart rates (Low, Stanton, & Bower, 2008)

Literature Review:Heart Rate Variability

Higher HRV is good– shows you are more adaptive! (Appelhans & Leucken, 2006)

People may have lower HRV when in stressful situations (Lyonfields, 1996)

Literature Review:Coping

Coping styles can have implications for physical health

People who ruminate about anger have higher blood pressure (Hogan & Linden, 2004)

Repressive coping style is associated with coronary artery disease, myocardial infarction, and death (Denollet et al., 2008)

Literature Review:Coping

People who repress anger are more likely to become victims of early death (Harburg et al., 2003)

Clear that coping methods have important interactions with cardiovascular health

Literature Review:Measuring Coping Styles

We used the Brief COPE› 28-item questionnaire› Measures 14 different coping mechanisms

Developed by Charles S. Carver Demonstrated internal validity (Carver,

1997) Briefer version of the full-scale COPE

(Carver, 2007)

Research Topic

My research will determine what relationships exist between types of coping and Heart Rate Variability in response to a stressful event

Methodology

Part of a larger study intended to collect different types of data

Study was done in 2 phases, each about 1 hour long› Phase I: Battery of questionnaires,

including the Brief COPE› Phase II: HRV, blood pressure, and

cholesterol measurements, and another brief questionnaire

Methodology: Sample Population

Eligibility› Enrollment in psychology course› 18 years old› Fluent in English› Participants were excluded if they could not fast the

night before Phase II UNT undergraduate psychology students receiving

course credit› Recruited through SONA system› Final Sample: 501 Phase I participants, 297 Phase II

participants Representative sample of overall student population

of UNT, taking into account race, age, and sex

References

Appelhans, B.M., & Luecken, L.J. (2006). Heart rate variability as an index of regulated emotional responding. Review of General Psychology, 10, 229-240.

Carver, C.S. (1997). You want to measure coping but your protocol’s too long: Consider the Brief COPE. International Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 4, 92-100.

Carver, C.S. (2007). Brief COPE. Retrieved March 11, 2009, from University of Miami, Department of Psychology Web site: http://www.psy.miami.edu/faculty/ccarver/sclBrCOPE.html

Center for Disease Control. (2005, November 9). Deaths: Final Data for 2002, tables 9, 10. Retrieved March 11, 2009, from http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/deaths.htm

Hogan, B.E., & Linden, W. (2004). Anger response styles and blood pressure: At least don’t ruminate about it! Annals of Behavioral Medicine, 27

Denollet, J., Conraads, V.M., Martens, E.J., Nyklicek, I., & de Gelder, B. (2008). Clinical events in coronary patients who report low distress: Adverse effect of repressive coping. Health Psychology, 27, 302-308.

Harburg, E., Julius, M., Kaciroti, N., Gleiberman, L., & Schork, M.A. (2003). Expressive/suppressive anger- coping responses, gender, and types of mortality: A 17-year follow-up (Tecumseh, Michigan, 1971-1988). Psychosomatic Medicine, 65, 588-597.

Low, C.A., Stanton, A.L., & Bower, J.E. (2008). Effects of acceptance-oriented versus evaluative emotional processing on heart rate recovery and habituation. Emotion, 8, 419-424.

Lyonfields, J.D. (1996). The impact of mental activity, affective content, and chronic worry on heart rate variability. Dissertation Abstracts International: Section B: The Sciences and Engineering, 57, 0752.

Malik, M. (1996). Heart rate variability: Standards of measurement, physiological interpretation, and clinical use. Circulation, 93, 1043-1065.

Acknowledgments

Joseph Doster, Ph. D., Professor, Department of Psychology

Joseph Critelli, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Psychology

Andrea Kirk, Ph.D., Lecturer, Honors College Susan Eve, Ph.D., Associate Dean of the Honors College Gloria Cox, Ph.D., Dean of the Honors College Warren Burggren, Ph.D., Dean of the College of Arts and

Sciences Wendy Wilkins, Ph.D., Provost and V.P. of Academic

Affairs Gretchen Bataille, Ph.D., President of the University of

North Texas