Coping Styles and Cardiovascular Health: Heart Rate Variability Response to Stress

1. Coping Styles and Cardiovascular Health: Heart Rate Variability Response to Stress Kristen Kettler, Department of Psychology, College of Arts and Sciences Honors College Joseph Doster, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Psychology

2. 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?

3. 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

4. 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)

5. 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)

6. 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)

7. 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

8. 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)

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

10. 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

11. 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

12. 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.

13. 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