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Adaptive style and physiological reactivity during a laboratory stress paradigm in children with cancer and healthy controls

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Abstract

Repressive adaptation has been conceptualized as one pathway to psychological resilience in children with cancer, but the physiological costs of maintaining a repressive adaptive style are currently unknown. The goal of this study was to examine physiological functioning as a function of adaptive style in children with cancer (N = 120) and healthy controls (N = 120). Children completed self-report measures of state anxiety and defensiveness prior to participating in three verbal stress tasks while monitoring blood pressure, electrocardiogram, and electrodermal response, and rated their anxiety following each task. Findings indicated no consistent differences in baseline indices and physiological reactivity as a function of adaptive style or health status (cancer vs. control). In addition, children identified as having a repressive adaptive style did not exhibit greater verbal-autonomic discrepancy than low-anxious children. In contrast to findings with adults, children with a repressive adaptive style do not appear to experience adverse effects of this coping style in terms of physiological reactivity.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported in part by a grant from the National Cancer Institute (CA82378) and by the American Lebanese-Syrian Associated Charities (ALSAC).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, 262 Danny Thomas Place, Memphis, TN, 38105-2794, USA

    Natalie A. Williams & Sean Phipps

  2. School of Public Health, University of Memphis, Memphis, TN, USA

    Natalie A. Williams

  3. Department of Psychology, University of Mississippi, Oxford, MS, USA

    Michael T. Allen

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  1. Natalie A. Williams
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Correspondence to Sean Phipps.

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Williams, N.A., Allen, M.T. & Phipps, S. Adaptive style and physiological reactivity during a laboratory stress paradigm in children with cancer and healthy controls. J Behav Med 34, 372–380 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10865-011-9321-0

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