Carl-Walter Kohlmann

Gender Differences in Coping Strategies in Children and Adolescents

Abstract. The present study focuses on gender effects and interactions between gender, type of stressful situation, and age-group in coping strategies in childhood and adolescence. The sample consisted of N = 1990 children and adolescents (957 boys, 1033 girls; grade levels 3-8). Participants responded to a coping questionnaire (Fragebogen zur Erhebung von Stress und Stressbewaltigung im Kindes- und Jugendalter, SSKJ 3-8; Lohaus, Eschenbeck, Kohlmann, & Klein-Hesling, 2006) with the five subscales: seeking social support, problem solving, avoidant coping, palliative emotion regulation, and anger-related emotion regulation. Repeated measures ANOVAs with Gender and Grade Level as the between-subject factors and Situation (social, academic) as the within-subject factor were performed separately for each of the subscales. In general, girls scored higher in seeking social support and problem solving, whereas boys scored higher in avoidant coping. These three main effects were further modified by significant Ge...

Facets of Dynamic Positive Affect: Differentiating Joy, Interest, and Activation in the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS)

This article proposes the differentiation of Joy, Interest, and Activation in the Positive Affect (PA) scale of the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS; D. Watson, L. A. Clark, & A. Tellegen, 1988). Study 1 analyzed the dynamic course of PA before, during, and after an exam and established the differentiation of the three facets. Study 2 used a multistate-multitrait analysis to confirm this structure. Studies 3-5 used success-failure experiences, speaking tasks, and feedback of exam results to further examine PA facets in affect-arousing settings. All studies provide convincing evidence for the benefit of differentiating three facets of PA in the PANAS: Joy, Interest, and Activation do have distinct and sometimes even opposite courses that make their separation meaningful and rewarding.

The effects of academic stress on health behaviors in young adults

Abstract The present study examined changes in health behaviors as a function of academic stress. One-hundred and thirty-three college undergraduate students completed measures of stress, affect, and health-behaviors during times of low and high academic demands. During the high-stress period, negative affect increased and positive affect decreased significantly, while health behaviors deteriorated. The strongest decrements were observed for exercise. Generally, women scored higher on “routine health behaviors” (i.e., self-care, vehicle safety, drug avoidance), but not on behaviors requiring effort (i.e., exercise, healthy nutrition). Distinct patterns of changes in health behaviors and affect were observed: decreases in exercise and self-care were accompanied by decreases in positive affect, whereas decreases in drug avoidance were associated with increases in negative affect. Decreases in the quality of nutrition were linked to both decreases in positive and increases in negative affect. These results s...

Relationships between time of day, day of the week, and positive mood: Exploring the role of the mood measure

This study examined the relationship between time of day, day of the week, and two measures of positive affect (PA). According to previous research and the circumplex model of affect, one scale was designed to assess the activation component of PA, and the other one measured the pleasantness aspect. Subjects rated their mood three times a day for 7 consecutive days. Consistent with our hypotheses, PA-Pleasantness showed a peak on the weekend, whereas PA-Activation remained stable throughout the week. Regarding time of day, maximum PA-Activation was reached in the afternoon. In contrast, the Pleasantness component of PA increased from morning to evening. Implications of these results as well as other findings concerning the differential content of “PA” measures are discussed regarding the fact that a certain scale is most appropriate and maximally valid for representing certain aspects of affective experience.

Attentional biases for threatening faces in children: Vigilant and avoidant processes.

The authors examined the processing of threat-related information in childhood anxiety with the emotional Stroop task and the dot probe task. In study 1, a nonclinical sample of 112 pupils (mean age = 9 years) performed pictorial versions of both tasks. For each task, an index indicating a bias for threat processing was computed. Positive correlations were found between these indices and anxiety. When compared with the original emotional Stroop index, the absolute value of the emotional Stroop index was a better predictor of anxiety. It was possible to replicate this result in study 2 with 80 pupils (mean age = 8.6 years). Results are discussed with regard to vigilance and avoidance as basic mechanisms underlying performance on the tasks.

Avoidant coping style and verbal-cardiovascular response dissociation

Abstract This study explored the relationship between an avoidant coping style and three responses during three experimental periods (i.e., speech preparation, speech delivery, and recovery). One response was cardiovascular reactivity, the two other responses were subjective in nature: self-reports of anxiety and self-estimations of blood pressure. Subjects were 20 male and 20 female students who scored either in the upper third (i.e., high-avoiders) or lower third (i.e., low-avoiders) on cognitive avoidance (Krohne, 1989). When compared to subjects scoring low on avoidance, those high on avoidance showed greater systolic blood pressure (SBP) reactivity and evidenced verbal-autonomic response dissociation across all experimental periods. That is, their SBP increases were stronger in relation to their increases in self-reported anxiety. Verbal-autonomic response dissociation, however, did not occur for estimations of SBP, suggesting that self-reports of anxiety and estimations of autonomic responses reflec...

Trait anxiety and parental child-rearing behavior: Support as a moderator variable?

Abstract Based on central assumptions of the social support literature and on formulations concerning the construction of competence and consequence expectancies, a model for the interaction of maternal and paternal child-rearing behavior in the development of childrens trait anxiety is presented. Hypotheses concerning this model are tested empirically; 160 boys and 169 girls (aged 12–14 years) responded to the “Erziehungsstil-Inventar” (“Child-Rearing Inventory”), which serves as a measure of child-rearing styles as perceived by the child, as well as to a German adaptation of the “State-Trait Anxiety Inventory for Children”. General relations between the variables were analyzed by means of product-moment correlations, whereas moderator effects, specifically, were subjected to analyses of variance. Trait anxiety was mainly associated with parental inconsistency. Predicted interactions of maternal and paternal child-rearing behavior could be partly confirmed.

Physician-Diagnosed Obesity in German 6- to 14-Year-Olds

Objective: This study analyses whether children with obesity have an increased risk of internalising disorders, externalising disorders, and sleep disorders compared to children without physician-diagnosed obesity. Method: The study included 156,948 children aged between 6 and 14 years. We analysed data of a German national health insurance company concerning the rates of the physician-diagnosed ICD-10 disorders of obesity and psychiatric disorders. Results: Greater odds for externalising disorders (odds ratio (OR) = 1.64), internalising disorders (OR = 2.00), sleep disorders (OR = 1.87), and a stay in hospital (OR = 1.44) were found among children with physician-diagnosed obesity compared to children without physician-diagnosed obesity. The increased ORs were higher in girls with obesity compared to boys with obesity for externalising disorders (OR = 1.91 vs. 1.52) and internalising disorders (especially anxiety, OR = 2.15 vs. 1.43). According to age group, the increased OR was highest in young adolescents (12- to 14-year-olds) with obesity compared to younger children with obesity for internalising disorders (especially anxiety, OR = 2.32 vs. 1.59 and 1.43). Conclusion: For obesity prevention and obesity intervention, it is important to understand comorbid health problems as well as potential interindividual influence factors (such as gender or age), both of which should be a focus in respective programmes.

Cardiovascular reactivity to mental stress in the Stockholm Female Coronary Risk Study.

Objective This study evaluated the ability of mental stress testing to discriminate between women with and without CHD, and among women with different disease manifestations, taking into account history of hypertension and &bgr;-blocker use. Methods Analyses were based on data from a community-based case-control study of women aged 65 years or younger. The study group consisted of 292 women who were hospitalized for an acute event of CHD, either AMI or unstable AP in Stockholm between 1991 and 1994. Controls were matched to cases by age and catchment area. Cardiovascular reactivity and emotional response to an anagram task solved under time pressure were measured 3 to 6 months after hospitalization. Results Patients reacted with smaller increases in heart rate (4 bpm) than their controls (7 bpm). Results for the rate-pressure product were similar. Cardiovascular reactions did not distinguish patients with AP from those with AMI. History of hypertension (present in 50% of patients and 11% of controls) was related to enhanced diastolic blood pressure reactivity. Patients on &bgr;-blockers (66%) had lower heart-rate levels throughout testing, but did not differ in their cardiovascular stress reactions when compared with the remaining participants. Conclusions Women with heart disease have somewhat lower heart-rate responses to stress than healthy age-matched controls. History of hypertension is related to enhanced diastolic blood pressure reactivity to mental stress in both patients and controls.

Rigid and flexible modes of coping: Related to coping style?

Abstract This study examined dispositional and situative antecedents of vigilant and avoidant coping behavior. Seventy-two subjects were classified in coping style on the basis of their responses to the vigilance and cognitive avoidance scales of the Mainz Coping Inventory (MCI, Krohne, 1989), and alternatively, on their trait anxiety and defensiveness scores (cf. Weinberger, Schwartz, & Davidson, 1979). In a subsequent laboratory task, subjects were exposed to various conditions of predictability of an aversive event. In anticipation of an aversive loud tone, coping behavior was operationally defined as choosing to listen either to a warning channel (i.e., vigilance) or instead to music (i.e., avoidance). Probability of occurrence of a warning signal while listening to the warning channel varied across trials, being either 0%, 33%, 66%, or 100%. Subjects were exposed to each level and were informed about the respective probability in advance. In general, listening to the warning channel increased with an...