Effects of Sex, Gender Role Identification, and Gender Relevance of Two Types of Stressors on Cardiovascular and Subjective Responses

Abstract

The authors tested the hypothesis that a match between the gender relevance of a stressor and one's sex or gender role identification would elicit higher cardiovascular responses. Healthy female and male undergraduates (n = 108) were exposed to two stressors: the Cold Pressor Test (CPT) and the n-back task. Stressor relevance was manipulated to be masculine or feminine relevant or gender neutral. Data were analyzed using a Bayesian model selection procedure. The results showed stronger cardiovascular responses for the CPT in the case of a gender match effect. In contrast, results for the n-back task revealed stronger cardiovascular responses for sex and gender mismatch effects. These discrepant match and mismatch effects are discussed in terms of differential task appraisal (i.e., threat vs. challenge). Additional results (a) support the success of measuring gender role identification indirectly by means of the Gender Implicit Association Test, (b) do not show that the effect of stressor relevance is more pronounced on those hemodynamic parameters typically increased by the stressor, and (c) reveal differential effects of stressor relevance for subjective and cardiovascular stress responses. Taken together, it can be concluded that the process of the cognitive appraisal of stressor relevance outlines individual variability in cardiovascular responding to acute stress.

Effort analysis of gender differences in cardiovascular response: Further evidence involving a traditionally feminine incentive

“…One is because it could partially explain why CV response correlates of gender have been inconsistent in stress, health and other performance challenge studies (Atienza, Henderson, Wilcox, & King, 2001;Brown & Smith, 1992;Davis & Matthews, 1996;Jorgenson & Houston, 1981;Lash, Eisler, & Schulnian, 1990;Lash, Gillespie, Eisler, & Southard, 1991;Leinwand, 2003;Matthews, Davis, Stoney, Owens, & Caggiula, 1991;Stoney, Matthews, McDonald, & Johnson, 1988;Saab et al, 1997;Smith, Limon, Gallo, & Ngu, 1996;Stroud, Niaura, & Stoney, 2001;Van Egeren, 1979;Van Well, Kolk, & Klugkist, 2008). Most often, investigators have observed stronger CV responses in men, with effects being especially likely for systolic blood pressure (SBP -Saab, 1989;Stoney, Davis, & Matthews, 1987).…”

Social Support and Mental Health in Middle-Aged Men and Women

“…Perhaps not surprisingly, the resulting findings are inconsistent. For example, although some studies show that social support benefits women and not men (e.g., Matud, Carballeira, López, Marrero, & Ibáñez, 2002), others show that social support benefits men but not women (e.g., van Well, Kolk, & Klugkist, 2008), and still others find that social support operates similarly for women and men (e.g., Cheng & Chan, 2006;Flaherty & Richman, 1989;van Daalen et al, 2005). In the present study, we attempt to move this literature forward by using a large, homogeneous sample and a multidimensional assessment of support.…”

Sex and gender in psychoneuroimmunology research: Past, present and future

“…In contrast to the gender-match effect found for the cold pressor test, the memory task evidenced stronger cardiovascular responses for a gender-mismatch introduction. The investigators hypothesized that in accordance with prior theory on the topic (Tomaka 1993) the active nature of the memory task tapped challenge appraisal from participants, whereas the passive nature of the cold pressor test is more likely to elicit threat appraisal (van Well et al, 2008). Their results highlight the influence of gender on situational appraisal and subsequent physiological responses, and also highlight the need to either control for this confound in stress research or to conduct specific gender analyses.…”

“…In such gender role studies, the gender orientation of a stress task is manipulated by tailoring the language of the introduction to the task to reference either masculine role, feminine role, or gender neutral role. One study examined the effect of gender role matching on cardiovascular stress responses following two tasks, the cold pressor test and a task that included memory testing, in 108 men and women (van Well et al, 2008). Gender relevance was manipulated by tailoring the introduction of the stressors in the following ways.…”

“…Interestingly, negative emotional expression has been found to mediate the magnitude of cytokine response in women (Darnall, 2008) and women who have high anger expression are at increased risk for glucose dysregulation (Suarez, 2006). The aforementioned sex/gender differences are rather unsurprising, given the structural and functional brain differences that have been documented, as well as the influence of sex/gender on appraisal (Rhudy and Williams, 2005; van Well et al, 2008), cognition (Berman et al, 1997), emotion (Rhudy and Williams, 2005), and behavior. However, while further study is needed, the current literature suggests women may have a biological and environmental diathesis for increased physiologic stress responses to negatively-valenced emotional expression.…”