Physical contact experience and coping ability: A study of survivors of myocardial infarction

OBJECTIVE: This study investigates the hypothesis that interpersonal physical contact experience contributes importantly to the capacity to cope with stress. DESIGN: Participants with differing physical contact experience were compared in respect of their coping with a standard adverse life event. METHOD: A total of 137 survivors of a first myocardial infarction was assessed for their physical contact experience and/or their coping when admitted to hospital, at discharge and then 3 months later. Also, at 6 months post-infarct and 6 months post-discharge respectively, data relevant to their coping were collected from hospitals and general practitioners. RESULTS: The participants with satisfactory and unsatisfactory physical contact experience did not differ on measures of stress and general coping. However, those with satisfactory experience emerged as having adjusted significantly better psychologically than those with negative experience in childhood and the present combined. Yet, the 'satisfactory' participants also spent a significant 5 days longer in hospital and increased their GP usage more than twice as much as their 'unsatisfactory' counterparts. CONCLUSIONS: Each kind of physical contact experience may be linked with a different aspect of coping ability, satisfactory experience with psychological adjustment, and unsatisfactory experience with physical resilience.