Anger Expression, Self-focus and Coronary Heart Disease Risk Factors

BACKGROUND:

The continued number of observations relating the Type A behavior pattern to coronary heart disease underscores the importance of developing a careful theoretical basis that may account for the virulent components of a coronary-prone personality.

CARDIA or Coronary Heart Disease Risk Development in Young Adults is a prospective, epidemiological study of coronary heart disease risk factors in cohorts of Black and white men and women, 18 to 30 years of age.

DESIGN NARRATIVE:

From each of the baseline tape-recorded Type A/B structured interviews administered in CARDIA, eighteen questions were scored for self-references, perceived pressure, anger experience, and anger expression. The anger measures were related to other measures of anger-in and hostility in order to establish their validity. The interrelationships of these factors were assessed separately for each of the socioeconomic status (SES) categories. A major focus of the analyses was to describe SES differences in how pressure was perceived and how anger was experienced and expressed. The study also assessed how these factors were related to data already collected on psychosocial risk factors and primary risk factors including blood pressure, serum cholesterol, and cigarette smoking.