TY - JOUR
T1 - Social Context and Sex Moderate the Association Between Type D Personality and Cardiovascular Reactivity
AU - Riordan, Adam O’
AU - Howard, Siobhán
AU - Gallagher, Stephen
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2019, Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.
PY - 2019/12/1
Y1 - 2019/12/1
N2 - Type D personality has been consistently associated with adverse cardiovascular health with atypical cardiovascular reactions to psychological stress one plausible underlying mechanism. However, whether this varies by sex and social context has received little attention. This study examined the interaction between Type D personality, sex and social context on cardiovascular reactivity to acute stress. A sample of 76 healthy undergraduate students (47 female) completed the DS14 Type D measure, before undergoing a traditional cardiovascular reactivity protocol. The social context of the laboratory environment was manipulated to create a social and non-social context using a between-subjects design. Systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP) and heart rate (HR) were monitored throughout. No associations were evident for blood pressure. However, a significant personality × sex × social context interaction on HR reactivity was found; here Type D was associated with a higher HR response to the social task amongst males but not females, while Type D females typically exhibited blunted reactions. While these atypical reactions indicate a possible psychophysiological pathway leading to adverse cardiovascular events amongst Type Ds, it appears that Type D males are particularly vulnerable to socially based stressors, exhibiting exaggerated cardiovascular reactions.
AB - Type D personality has been consistently associated with adverse cardiovascular health with atypical cardiovascular reactions to psychological stress one plausible underlying mechanism. However, whether this varies by sex and social context has received little attention. This study examined the interaction between Type D personality, sex and social context on cardiovascular reactivity to acute stress. A sample of 76 healthy undergraduate students (47 female) completed the DS14 Type D measure, before undergoing a traditional cardiovascular reactivity protocol. The social context of the laboratory environment was manipulated to create a social and non-social context using a between-subjects design. Systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP) and heart rate (HR) were monitored throughout. No associations were evident for blood pressure. However, a significant personality × sex × social context interaction on HR reactivity was found; here Type D was associated with a higher HR response to the social task amongst males but not females, while Type D females typically exhibited blunted reactions. While these atypical reactions indicate a possible psychophysiological pathway leading to adverse cardiovascular events amongst Type Ds, it appears that Type D males are particularly vulnerable to socially based stressors, exhibiting exaggerated cardiovascular reactions.
KW - Biological sex
KW - Cardiovascular reactivity
KW - Social context
KW - Stress
KW - Type D personality
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85070301317&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/s10484-019-09447-x
DO - 10.1007/s10484-019-09447-x
M3 - Article
C2 - 31401692
AN - SCOPUS:85070301317
SN - 1090-0586
VL - 44
SP - 321
EP - 330
JO - Applied Psychophysiology Biofeedback
JF - Applied Psychophysiology Biofeedback
IS - 4
ER -