Coping subtypes for men with coronary heart disease: relationship to well-being, stress and Type-A behaviour

Abstract

SynopsisWe used cluster analysis to delineate coping subtypes in a sample of 166 men with coronary heart disease who completed the Antwerp out-patient rehabilitation programme. These subtypes were identified on the basis of three well-defined superordinate traits that were selected from a comprehensive taxonomy: negative affectivity, social inhibition, and self-deception. Using Ward's minimum variance method and the cubic clustering criterion, we identified four coping subtypes; low-negative affectivity (N = 48), high-negative affectivity (N = 30), inhibited (N = 62), and repressive (N = 26) individuals. The accuracy of the resulting classification was demonstrated across parallel data sets and was further validated against external, health-related correlates that were not included in the clustering. The identified coping subtypes were significantly related to self-reports of subjective distress/perceived stress, ratings of Type A behaviour and anger-in, return to work, prevalence of chest-pain complaints, and use of minor tranquillizers and sleeping pills. The major findings of this study suggest that (a) male coronary patients represent a heterogeneous population with distinctly different coping subtypes, and that (b) a relatively small number of homogeneous subtypes can account for a substantial amount of variance in subjective well-being, coronary-prone behaviour, and return to work. These findings indicate that psychosomatic research should focus on how superordinate traits interact within individuals and corroborate the appropriateness of a class model to describe coping styles of male coronary patients. It is argued that discrepant findings across studies of Type-A behaviour and hostility may be related to the coping subtypes of the subject sample. Further attempts to cross-validate this classification scheme and to examine its health-related correlates are needed.

Type D personality impairs Quality of Life, coping and short-term psychological outcome in patients attending an outpatient intensive program of cardiac rehabilitation

“…In recent years a series of studies conducted by Denollet et al [4,5] have shown Type D personality to be a 'distressed personality' profile leading to increased vulnerability for emotional, social difficulties and psychological risk factor [5][6][7][8][9][10][11]. Type D personality construct refers to individuals who simultaneously experience high level of negative affectivity and high levels of social inhibition [12].…”

Social inhibition as a mediator of neuroticism and depression in the elderly

“…However, the role of introversion as a risk factor for depression is less visible, or at least less pronounced, than that of neuroticism [25,26]. Denollet [27,28] developed the Type D scale 16 (DS16) based on a two-construct personality which includes (i) negative affectivity (NA), which denotes a stable tendency to experience negative emotions. This trait has also been conceptualized as neuroticism [29,30] - with the NA sub-scale correlated with neuroticism in the NEO-FFI (r = 0.68) and the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (r = 0.64) [31], and (ii) social inhibition (SI), denoting the stable tendency to inhibit expressions of emotion during social interaction.…”

Association of Type D personality with increased vulnerability to depression: Is there a role for inflammation or endothelial dysfunction? – The Maastricht Study

“…The Type D personality construct is characterized by a high score on two stable personality traits; negative affectivity and social inhibition (Denollet, 1993;Denollet and De Potter, 1992). Negative affectivity (NA) refers to the tendency to experience negative emotions such as anger or anxiety across time and situations (Watson and Pennebaker, 1989).…”