Heart Care Info - Heart Disease Prevention & Treatment

Healthy Psychological Functioning and Incident Coronary Heart Disease: The Importance of Self-regulation

LD Kubzansky, N Park, C Peterson... - Archives of general ..., 2011 - Am Med Assoc Objective To examine whether self-regulation is associated with reduced risk of coronary heart disease (CHD). Secondary aims were to consider whether the effects are independent of other measures of psychological functioning and how they may occur.

Validated measures of self-regulation as formulated in the preceding paragraph or more specific measures of emotion regulation have recently been developed,29 ,31 but at the time the NAS was initiated few well-developed measures were available. However, extensive information on psychological functioning was obtained from which we were able to derive a measure of self-regulation. Building on prior theory and empirical research, we define self-regulation as a psychological asset that enables individuals to manage feelings, thoughts, impulses, and behavior, with the capacity to regulate emotions serving as a central component. Following recent theory, various aspects of regulation are assessed via the use (or not) of strategies such as selecting and modifying situations, directing attention to the self or other aspects of the situation, exerting mental control or reappraisal, and modulating responses.15 ,32 - 34 Building on other work that has developed approaches for scoring positive traits from archival material,35 self-regulation was assessed using 37 items selected on a priori theoretical grounds from the revised Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI-2 [available from the authors on request]). Comparison of the newly derived measure of self-regulation with other MMPI-2–based scales (eg, social responsibility, hostility control, and self-criticism) via item analysis, correlates, and conceptual meaning suggest that the new measure is conceptually distinct.36 - 38