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Familial Environment Associated With Type A Behaviors and Psychophysiological Responsesto Stress in Children

Familial Environment Associated With Type A Behaviors and Psychophysiological Responsesto Stress... This study tested twomajor hypotheses regarding the characteristics of family environments associated withchildren’s Type A behaviors, anger frequency and expression, hostile outlook,hostility displayed during an interview, and cardiovascular responses to laboratory stressors.Two measures of family environment, Positive Affiliation and Authoritarianism, were derived bya factor analysis of the Family Environment Scale completed by parents. The sample consisted of66 girls and 48 boys enrolled in Grades 2 through 12 from 114 families residing in apredominantly White, upper-middle-class suburb of Pittsburgh. Analyses largely supported thefirst hypothesis—that a less supportive and positively involved family climate wouldbe associated with attributes of potential coronary heart disease (CHD) risk in children.Families scoring low on Positive Affiliation had children who were assessed as more angry andhostile on the basis of questionnaires and interview. Boys from these families had a morepronounced heart rate response to all laboratory stressors. The secondhypothesis—that authoritarianism, in the absence of positive involvement andsupportiveness in the family, would be associated with attributes of potential CHD risk inchildren—received support in regard to boys’ heart rate responses to theserial-subtraction and mirror-image-tracing tasks. High Authoritarianism scores in combinationwith low Positive Affiliation scores in families predicted a heightened heart rate response inboys. Sex differences in the pattern of associations among family and child characteristicswere also found. Results suggest that factors in the family environment may be importantinfluences in children’s development of characteristics that may, in adulthood, placethem at risk for CHD.Key words: Type A, familyenvironment, authoritarianism, positive affiliation, heart rate reactivity, coronary heartdisease (CHD) risk, children http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Health Psychology American Psychological Association

Familial Environment Associated With Type A Behaviors and Psychophysiological Responsesto Stress in Children

Woodall, Karen L.; Matthews, Karen A.
Health Psychology , Volume 8 (4): 24 – Jan 1, 1989
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Publisher
American Psychological Association
Copyright
Copyright © 1989 American Psychological Association
ISSN
0278-6133
eISSN
1930-7810
DOI
10.1037/0278-6133.8.4.403
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

This study tested twomajor hypotheses regarding the characteristics of family environments associated withchildren’s Type A behaviors, anger frequency and expression, hostile outlook,hostility displayed during an interview, and cardiovascular responses to laboratory stressors.Two measures of family environment, Positive Affiliation and Authoritarianism, were derived bya factor analysis of the Family Environment Scale completed by parents. The sample consisted of66 girls and 48 boys enrolled in Grades 2 through 12 from 114 families residing in apredominantly White, upper-middle-class suburb of Pittsburgh. Analyses largely supported thefirst hypothesis—that a less supportive and positively involved family climate wouldbe associated with attributes of potential coronary heart disease (CHD) risk in children.Families scoring low on Positive Affiliation had children who were assessed as more angry andhostile on the basis of questionnaires and interview. Boys from these families had a morepronounced heart rate response to all laboratory stressors. The secondhypothesis—that authoritarianism, in the absence of positive involvement andsupportiveness in the family, would be associated with attributes of potential CHD risk inchildren—received support in regard to boys’ heart rate responses to theserial-subtraction and mirror-image-tracing tasks. High Authoritarianism scores in combinationwith low Positive Affiliation scores in families predicted a heightened heart rate response inboys. Sex differences in the pattern of associations among family and child characteristicswere also found. Results suggest that factors in the family environment may be importantinfluences in children’s development of characteristics that may, in adulthood, placethem at risk for CHD.Key words: Type A, familyenvironment, authoritarianism, positive affiliation, heart rate reactivity, coronary heartdisease (CHD) risk, children

Journal

Health Psychology – American Psychological Association

Published: Jan 1, 1989

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