Type D personality and cardiovascular reactivity to acute stress: The mediating effects of social support and negative social relationships

Abstract

Type D personality has been consistently associated with adverse cardiovascular health with atypical cardiovascular reactions to psychological stress one potential underlying mechanism. As Type D individuals have been noted to report lower social support and greater perceptions of negativity in social interactions, this study examined if the association between Type D personality and cardiovascular reactivity was mediated by these social relationships. A sample of 195 undergraduate students (138 female) participated in this observational study, where they completed measures assessing Type D personality (DS14), social support, and perceptions of negative social relationships (National Institute of Health social relationship scales), before undergoing a traditional cardiovascular reactivity protocol. Systolic and diastolic blood pressure (SBP; DBP), heart rate (HR), cardiac output (CO), and total peripheral resistance (TPR) were monitored throughout. ANCOVAs and regressions indicated that Type D personality was associated with lower cardiovascular reactivity to a mental arithmetic stressor. Furthermore, mediation analyses (process macro) indicated that the relationship between Type D personality and cardiovascular reactivity was mediated via increased perceptions of negative social relationships, as well as lower levels of social support. Apart from a significant association between Type D personality and increased HR reactivity, all results failed to withstand adjustment for the individual effects of negative affect (NA) and social inhibition (SI) in controlled analyses. Overall, these findings suggest that the predictive utility of Type D personality on cardiovascular reactivity above and beyond the individual effects of NA and SI is limited, and may vary depending on the cardiovascular parameter of focus.

The Influence of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Stress Levels and Occurrence of Stomatoghnatic System Disorders (SSDs) among Physiotherapy Students in Poland

“…This study is a quantitative analysis examining the impact of the psychological effects of the pandemic on the occurrence of stress and stomatognathic system disorders among students of physiotherapy. The results of this research may help in preparing appropriate future intervention programs and effective prevention strategies in crisis situations at universities [32,[35][36][37][38].…”

Type D personality and cardiovascular reactivity to acute psychological stress: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

“…Data were available for six articles due to our direct involvement in these studies (Howard & Hughes, 2013; Howard et al, 2011; O’Leary et al, 2013; O’Riordan et al, 2019; O’Riordan, Howard, Brown, & Gallagher, 2020; O’Riordan, Howard, & Gallagher, 2022; ). For the remaining articles, emails were sent to all other corresponding authors requesting raw data (or specific values required for meta-analyses).…”

“…Interestingly, Type D personality has been associated with both high (O’Riordan, Howard, Brown, & Gallagher, 2020; Williams et al, 2009) and low (Howard et al, 2011; Kelly-Hughes et al, 2014; Lü & Yao, 2021; O’Leary et al, 2013; O’Riordan, Howard, & Gallagher, 2022) cardiovascular responses to acute psychological stress. To date, the literature has accentuated two likely moderating factors that may account for these antithetical effects, including the social salience of the experimental stressor and the sex of the sample.…”

Los modelos dimensionales de la personalidad y su importancia en la psicología de la salud

“…Respecto a la personalidad tipo d actualmente no hay un consenso frente a su importancia en pacientes con ecv (Coyne y de Voogd, 2012;Lichtman et al, 2014). Se ha señalado que este concepto implica la presencia de dos factores que podrían estar relacionados con la ecv de forma independiente y que su combinación no puede definir por sí misma un tipo de personalidad (Laham, 2008;O'Riordan, Howard, Brown y Gallagher, 2020). Adicionalmente, el hecho de incluir dos elementos que estén correlacionados aumenta la posibilidad de encontrar resultados por azar, de tal forma que algunos autores afirman que su efecto en las investigaciones puede deberse a la suma de efectos individuales (Compare et al, 2013;Lodder, 2020;Lodder, Emons, Denollet y Wicherts, 2020).…”