Displacement behaviour is associated with reduced stress levels among men but not women.

Changiz Mohiyeddini,Stephanie Bauer,Stuart Semple

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0056355

Abstract

Sex differences in the ability to cope with stress may contribute to the higher prevalence of stress-related disorders among women compared to men. We recently provided evidence that displacement behaviour - activities such as scratching and face touching - represents an important strategy for coping with stressful situations: in a healthy population of men, displacement behaviour during a social stress test attenuated the relationship between anxiety experienced prior to this test, and the subsequent self-reported experience of stress. Here, we extend this work to look at physiological and cognitive (in addition to self-reported) measures of stress, and study both men and women in order to investigate whether sex moderates the link between displacement behaviour and the response to stress. In a healthy study population, we quantified displacement behaviour, heart rate and cognitive performance during the Trier Social Stress Test, and used self-report questionnaires to assess the experience of stress afterwards. Men engaged in displacement behaviour about twice as often as women, and subsequently reported lower levels of stress. Bivariate correlations revealed that for men, higher rates of displacement behaviour were associated with decreased self-reported stress, fewer mistakes in the cognitive task and a trend towards lower heart rate; no relationships between displacement behaviour and stress measures were found for women. Moreover, moderation analyses revealed that high rates of displacement behaviour were associated with lower stress levels in men but not in women, and that high displacement behaviour rates were associated with poorer cognitive performance in women, but not men. These results point to an important sex difference in coping strategies, and highlight new avenues for research into sex biases in stress-related disorders.

Highlights

Sex differences in the experience and the impact of stress are well documented; along a number of different dimensions, women experience markedly more stress than men [1]
We investigated the role of displacement behaviour as a coping strategy during a socially stressful situation, and tested for potential sex differences in the stress regulating function of such behaviour
During a Trier Social Stress Test (TSST), men engaged in displacement behaviour about twice as frequently as women, and self reported a lower experience of stress after the test than women; there were no sex differences in physiological or cognitive measures of stress

Summary

Introduction

Sex differences in the experience and the impact of stress are well documented; along a number of different dimensions, women experience markedly more stress than men [1]. Women are significantly more likely than men to be diagnosed with stress-related disorders such as depression or anxiety [2], and their greater experience of stress may increase risk of diseases such as cancer and cardio-vascular disease [3]. Understanding the factors underlying sex differences in stress linked conditions is a major goal for psychologists, psychiatrists and other medical practitioners [4]. In this area, there is significant interest in exploring sex differences in behavioural responses to stress, as behavioural coping may affect if - and how - stress is experienced, and could be a key protective factor against stress-related disorders [5]. Attention has begun to focus on the potential role in coping of ‘displacement behaviour’ – a group of activities such as scratching, face touching and lip biting that appear to have no relevance to the context in which they occur [12]

Methods

Results

Conclusion