Psychophysiologic stress responsivity in type A and B female college students and community women

Extreme Type A and Type B women (Jenkins Activity Survey) randomly assigned to low or high stress conditions of a forced choice reaction time task were monitored for heart rate (interbeat intervals), pulse transit time, skin conductance levels, and skin conductance responses during baseline, task, and recovery periods. Participants included 41 female undergraduates (student sample) and 58 women aged 25-65 years (community sample). Multivariate repeated measures analysis of variance indicated that among the students, Type As exposed to high stress had significantly higher skin conductance levels at baseline than did the Type As in low stress. During the reaction time stress task, student Type As in high versus low stress exhibited both higher heart rates and more skin conductance responses, although these effects did not occur for Type Bs. After covarying the baseline physiologic indices, results revealed that both heart rate and skin conductance levels were significantly higher for students in high versus low stress, but the Behavior Type X Stress interaction disappeared. In contrast, the Behavior Type X Stress interaction remained for skin conductance responses. Findings in the community sample showed only a nonsignificant trend for higher heart rate in high stress Type As than in low stress Type As. These results provide very weak evidence for a relationship in physiological indices between Type A behavior and stress in women across a broad age range. Implications are discussed with regard to sex differences in behavior type and possible interactions between behavior type and stress responsivity.