Psychosocial predictors of healthy behaviours in women

The link between psychosocial factors and various health problems may be partially explained by the relationships of these factors to healthy behaviours. The relationships of anger experience, anger expression, hostility and hardiness to healthy behaviours was investigated in 97 healthy women. In multiple regression analysis, 25% of the variance in healthy behaviour was accounted for by hostility (12.5%), education (added 7.5%), and the combination of high anger experience/high anger-out (added an additional 5%). This was especially significant in view of the significant relationship of hostility to both anger experience and anger out. Although hardiness showed a significant positive correlation (r = 0.23 P less than 0.05) with healthy behaviours, it did not enter the multiple regression equation. The negative effects of hostility and chronic experience and overt expression of anger emerged as stronger than any positive association between hardiness and healthy behaviours. Implications for nursing include anger recognition and constructive management as areas of education and support. These interventions should assist women in managing their health better and will provide fruitful areas for further study.