The relationship between personality types A and B in

stress and stress-causing characteristics of mother and

child

Fatemeh Rahmani Moqaddam and Samira Hatami

MA in Clinical Psychology, Kharazmi University, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences,

Department of Human Sciences, Iran MA in General Psychology, Azad University of Torbat-e Jam Iran

ABSTRACT

The present study is intended to investigate the relationship between personality types A and B in stress and stress-

causing characteristics of mother and child. The research method is descriptive-correlational. To this end, 100 indi-

viduals (63 subjects with type A and 37 subjects with type B) were selected through simple random sampling method

from the intended population including mothers working as a nurse in Kashmar hospitals aged between 25 and 35

years with at least one child and completed Abidin Parenting Stress Index Questionnaire (1990), Friedman and Ulmer

Personality Type Inventory (1984) and Rice Job Stress Questionnaire (1992). Further, to analyze the data, descriptive

statistics method, Pearson correlation method, multivariate regression analysis and independent t test were applied.

The research results demonstrated that the rate of job stress is signi cantly different between individuals with per-

sonality types A and B (P<0.05). Besides, the rate of maternal stress in people with personality type A and those with

personality type B shows signi cant difference (P<0.05). As a result, personality types A and B signi cantly predict

stress and stress-causing characteristics of mother and child.

KEY WORDS: PERSONALITY TYPES A AND B, STRESS AND STRESS-CAUSING CHARACTERISTICS OF MOTHER AND CHILD

255

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Received 27

Dec, 2016

Accepted after revision 2

March, 2017

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Biosci. Biotech. Res. Comm. Special Issue No 1:255-259 (2017)

INTRODUCTION

Stress is one of the most important causes of the inci-

dence of physical and mental disorders. Some have con-

sidered stress as the non-speci c response of the body

to any situation that needs compatibility; whether it is a

pleasant (job promotion) or unpleasant (dismissal from

work) situation. However, new  ndings suggest that

there are physiological differences between the stress

caused by favorable and unfavorable situations. Stress

is associated with health and performance; its low level

can improve the health and performance and its high

256 EVALUATION OF THE PROTECTIVE EFFECT OF VITAMIN C ON HEPATIC DAMAGE BIOSCIENCE BIOTECHNOLOGY RESEARCH COMMUNICATIONS

Fatemeh Rahmani Moqaddam and Samira Hatami

levels endanger the health and impair the performance

(Dadsetan, 2007). Numerous and different antecedents,

causes and sources can be introduced for stress so that

Lazarus and Folkman (1984) believe that all events are

potentially stress-causing and Holmes and Rahe (1967)

observe that all changes in life, whether positive or

negative, produce stress. Lazarus (1971) states that stress

refers to a wide range of problems that are distinct from

other problem areas. He believes that the individual’s

reaction depends on how the individual (consciously or

unconsciously) interprets or evaluates the meaning of

these traumatic, threatening or challenging events (Zah-

rakar, 2008). As mentioned, one of the stress-causing

factors is job and conditions of the workplace, which

includes any physical event or mental discomfort occur-

ring in the working environment. These events cause

disorder in the individual’s performance and ultimately

disorder in the organizational function in the long run

(Nicole & Tymnz, 2005). A large group of these employ-

ees comprise nurses. Nursing profession creates great

job stress due to the need for high skill and concen-

tration at work, strong team coordination and 24-hour

care (Vickers, 2003). Nursing staff in the workplace are

faced with a large number of stressors (Koshneer, 2000).

International Labor Organization has estimated the costs

imposed on countries due to job stress to be 1 to 5.3 per-

cent of the gross domestic product (Tangri, 2003). Cur-

rently, with regard to raising the awareness of employees

and correcting the legal laws, percentage of the problems

and costs associated with job stress is on the rise (Hole

et al., 2006). It has been determined in various studies

that around 30% of the labor force in developed coun-

tries suffers from job stress and this rate is even greater

in developing countries.

Parental stress is a term that determines the percep-

tion of stress in the parent-child system which embraces

both the child’s stress-causing characteristics and par-

ents’ responses to these characteristics (Abidin, 1983).

Experience of parental stress by different researchers

(e.g. Miller & Sillie, 1980; Kwok & Wong, 1999; Crea-

sey & Jarvis, 2003) showed that parenting is stressful

for both parents, but mothers experience more parental

stress than fathers (Wook & Wong, 1999). Development

in young children demands closer attention and moni-

toring on the part of mothers due to the functions of

the dynamics of development in early childhood (birth

to seven years old). Mothers spend more time with their

child while fathers spend this time outside the house.

This attention and monitoring can itself be a source

of stress in parents especially mothers (Shek & Tsang,

1993; Creasey & Jarvis, 2003).

Adjustment of mothers with parenting problems and

the resulting pressures has encouraged the researchers

to study the impact of parental stress on the mother’s

health. By the same token, Lahelma, Arber, Kivela and

Roes (2002) consider parenting alongside spousal rela-

tionships as one of the multiple roles which have nega-

tive effects on various components of maternal health.

Investigations of Gelfand, Teti and Fox (1992) revealed

the in uence of parental stress on increased depression

and stress in parents as two major components of men-

tal health (Rodrigous et al., 2003).

One of the most remarkable efforts made to build

a relationship between personality differences and the

ability to cope with stress belongs to Friedman and

Rozenmen (1959). They introduced two personality

types A and B. Personality types A refers to someone

who is highly competitive, bored, vengeful and vibrant

and speaks quickly. Personality type B is characterized

by people who are less competitive, are not vengeful and

dif cult, have more patience and speak or move with

more peace; additionally, the latter group is less prone to

cardiovascular diseases (Panel, 1981). Some individuals

create stress for themselves or aggravate their stress with

the help of irrational beliefs. Some other create stress as

a result of type A behavior (Spencer; cited in Hamzeh

Ganji, 1999). Conversely, type B individuals take things

easy and give more importance to the quality of life and

have less stress (Spencer; cited in Hamzeh Ganji, 1999).

Based on the foregoing, the present study seeks to inves-

tigate whether there is a signi cant relationship between

personality types A and B with stress and stress-causing

characteristics of mother and child.

METHODS

The present research is descriptive-correlational. The

statistical population comprises mothers working as a

nurse in Kashmar hospitals with the age of 25 to 35

years with at least one child. With respect to the men-

tioned statistical population, the sample size of this

study includes 100 people who were selected through

simple random sampling and were assigned into two A

and B groups based on the 25-question personality test

(A -%63) (B -%37).

RESEARCH TOOLS

1) Parenting Stress Index Questionnaire (PSI): To meas-

ure parental stress, Parenting Stress Index Questionnaire

(Abidin, 1990) was used. Alpha reliability coef cient

for each subtest, each domain and total scores was cal-

culated by the test-maker. The rate of reliability in the

population of 2633 people is 0.70 to 0.83 in the child

domain and 0.70 to 0.84 in the parent domain and in

the whole scale, the rate of reliability is 0.95. This rate

of reliability coef cient can represent the internal con-

BIOSCIENCE BIOTECHNOLOGY RESEARCH COMMUNICATIONS EVALUATION OF THE PROTECTIVE EFFECT OF VITAMIN C ON HEPATIC DAMAGE 257

Fatemeh Rahmani Moqaddam and Samira Hatami

Table 1.

Research

components

Job stress Maternal stress Total stress

Number Mean SD Mean SD Mean SD

Group A 63 145.62 12.608 153.38 9.37 145.62 12.608

Group B 37 130.68 14.756 137.76 11.696 130.68 14.756

Table 2. Independent samples test to compare the average job stress in A and B groups

Student’s t-test for the assumption of

the equality of means

Levene’s test for the assumption of the

equality of variances

Degree of

freedom

Signi cance

level

Mean

difference

Standard error

deviation

T Signi cance

level

98 0.000 14.943 2.783 5.369 0.777 0.080

sistency of evaluations (Hatami, 2009). In a study con-

ducted interculturally, the reliability rate of the scale is

similar to that of the original sample. The consistency

rate of the test was obtained in four different studies

through assessing reliability using test-retest method.

Three weeks after the initial implementation, Spearman

correlation coef cients in the child and parent domains

were obtained to be respectively 0.817 and 0.706, which

indicate the existence of a strong and signi cant corre-

lation (P<0.01) during three weeks (Abidin, 1990). More-

over, in terms of reliability, the researcher estimated

Cronbach’s alpha to be 0.92 (Hatami, 2009).

2) Friedman and Ulmer Personality Type Inventory:

To separate personality types from each other, Friedman

and Ulmer Personality Type Inventory (1984) was used.

This scale has been developed by Friedman and Ulmer

(1984), Matthews et al. (1982) and Mourant et al. (1983)

according to the characteristics of type A individuals.

Positive responses have been prepared based on type A

behavior and show type A behavior. Ganji has translated

this questionnaire in 2002. In most of the studies con-

ducted regarding the validity of this scale, coef cients

above 70% have been achieved (Hasanzadeh, 2005).

3) Rice Job Stress Questionnaire: To measure job

stress, Rice 57-question scale was employed. This ques-

tionnaire has been tested in relation to 275 school teach-

ers. Three sections of this questionnaire are quite similar

to other questionnaires of this type. The rate of validity

is 0.921 for the whole questionnaire and 0.898, 0.883

and 0.816 for its three sections. The full validity is equal

to 1. Cronbach’s alpha of the questionnaire was calcu-

lated to be 0.89 (Hatami, 2009).

RESULTS

The average age of mothers in the experimental group is

29 years and in terms of education, 85 subjects have a

bachelor’s degree and 15 subjects have a master’s degree.

Descriptive statistics of the research variables have been

provided in Table 1.

Hypothesis 1: There is a relationship between per-

sonality type A and job stress of mothers.

Hypothesis 2: There is a relationship between per-

sonality type B and job stress of mothers.

It should be initially proved that job stress of mothers

is normally distributed in both personality types. For

this purpose, Kolmogorov-Smirnov test was applied.

The signi cance levels of this test for the variable of

job stress of mothers in each of personality types A and

B were respectively 0.954 and 0.717, which are greater

than 0.05. Hence, job stress of mothers has a normal

distribution in each personality type. In the following,

independent t-test was used to compare the average job

stress in both A and B groups.

Signi cance level of t test is 0.00 which is lower

than 0.05. Thus, there is signi cant difference between

personality types A and B in terms of job stress. Here,

hypotheses 1 and 2 were proved, meaning that the rate

of job stress is different in people with personality types

A and B.

Hypothesis 3: There is a relationship between per-

sonality type A and maternal stress (stress-causing

characteristics).

Hypothesis 4: There is a relationship between per-

sonality type B and maternal stress (stress-causing

characteristics).

It should be initially proved that maternal stress is

normally distributed in both personality types. To this

end, like the  rst and second hypotheses, Kolmogorov-

Smirnov test was applied. The signi cance levels of this

test for the variable of maternal stress (stress-causing

characteristics) in each of personality types A and B

were respectively 0.324 and 0.218, which are greater

than 0.05. Therefore, the variable of maternal stress

Fatemeh Rahmani Moqaddam and Samira Hatami

258 EVALUATION OF THE PROTECTIVE EFFECT OF VITAMIN C ON HEPATIC DAMAGE BIOSCIENCE BIOTECHNOLOGY RESEARCH COMMUNICATIONS

(stress-causing characteristics) has a normal distribution

in each personality type. In the following, independent

t-test was used to compare the average maternal stress

(stress-causing characteristics) in both A and B groups.

Signi cance level of t test is 0.00 which is lower than

0.05. So, there is signi cant difference between person-

ality types A and B in terms of maternal stress (stress-

causing characteristics). Here, hypotheses 3 and 4 were

proved, meaning that the rate of maternal stress is dif-

ferent in people with A and B personality types.

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION

The overall results of the research demonstrate that there

is a signi cant relationship between personality types A

and B with job stress of mothers and also, there is sig-

ni cant difference between these two personality types

in terms of maternal stress and job stress of mothers. For

example, it can be said that these two personality types do

not show similar reactions in the face of mental pressure

and job stress and based on the foregoing, the more the

stressful events of life, the greater the job stress will be.

Further, individuals with personality type A (high scores

in the test) show less compatibility with pressure and

stress and are likely to receive mental pressure and on the

contrary, more compatibility with stress and mental pres-

sure is seen in people with personality type B.

First and second hypotheses: The results suggested

that the rate of job stress is different in individuals with

personality types A and B. These results are consistent

with the  ndings achieved by Aqilinezhad et al. (2007),

Nasrollahi et al. (2013), Keergard (2001), Kittel (2005),

Friedman and Rosenman (1974), Friedman (2006),

Atashafrouz (2007) and Yarahmadi Khorasani (2013). In

explaining the existing results, it can be stated that with

regard to the component of personality types A and B,

a signi cant relationship exists between the component

of personality type and job stress of mothers. It should

be remembered that each of personality types A and

B has its own special features and accordingly, type A

can be distinguished from type B. For example, type A

is always on the move whereas type B has no concern

about time. Type A individuals walk quickly but type

B individuals are patient. Type A group eats fast while

type B group eats food slowly and calmly. Type A talks

rapidly but type B does not brag and speaks slowly. The

tone of speech in type A individuals is harsh while type

B individuals have a gentle tone. Type A people are not

satis ed with their job and attempt to reach higher lev-

els whereas type B people are happy with their job. Con-

sidering the mentioned features, it can be easily claimed

that these two personality types are signi cantly dif-

ferent from each other and type A is more susceptible

to exhaustion and physical and mental problems. Based

on what has been said so far, it can be concluded that

the closer the personality type to A group, the higher

the risk of job burnout will be and vice versa. Conse-

quently, based on the foregoing, hypotheses 1 and 2 are

con rmed and it can be said that there is a signi cant

relationship between personality types A and B with job

burnout and also, a signi cant difference exists between

these two personality types in terms of the risk of job

burnout.

Third and fourth hypotheses: The results indicated

that the rate of maternal stress is different among indi-

viduals with personality types A and B. Additionally, it

can be mentioned that the dimensions of stress-causing

characteristic of the mother such as depression and dis-

satisfaction, parental attachment, role limitations, sense

of competence and social isolation have a signi cant

relationship with the personality type of mothers and

a signi cant difference was observed between these

two types. Results of the present research are congruent

with the studies carried out by Lawson and Shen (2002),

Schaefer (1991), Chandan (2005), Stura (1990), Green-

berg and Baron (2003) and Ross (2001).

In explaining these results, it can be stated that type

A individuals feel threatened and stressed even under

normal conditions because of their low self-esteem and

thus make extra efforts to improve their condition. In

this regard, Callahan (1989) came to the conclusion that

mothers with low self-esteem experience higher levels of

parental stress and often seek medical help, but there is

a possibility that low self-esteem in mothers who con-

stantly get sick results from low levels of parental stress

and in this case, they should bene t from counseling

and psychological support more than medical care. In

such cases, before adopting any therapy method, health

status of parents should be examined. With respect to

Table 3. Independent samples test to compare the average maternal stress in A and B

groups

Student’s t-test for the assumption of

the equality of means

Levene’s test for the assumption of the

equality of variances

Degree of

freedom

Signi cance

level

Mean

difference

Standard error

deviation

T Signi cance

level

98 0.000 15.624 2.130 7.334 0.378 0.785

BIOSCIENCE BIOTECHNOLOGY RESEARCH COMMUNICATIONS EVALUATION OF THE PROTECTIVE EFFECT OF VITAMIN C ON HEPATIC DAMAGE 259

Fatemeh Rahmani Moqaddam and Samira Hatami

what has been mentioned above, it can be said that there

is a signi cant relationship between the dimensions of

stress-causing characteristics of mothers and their per-

sonality type, meaning that parents with personality type

A have more problems particularly in connection with

their children and show features such as low self-esteem,

few friends, depression and greater anxiety compared

to type B individuals. Therefore, a signi cant difference

can be clearly seen between the two groups. Based on

the foregoing, hypotheses 3 and 4 are con rmed.

This study was faced with some limitations. The  rst

limitation of this research was related to the noncoop-

eration of subjects since the questions were numerous

and time-consuming so that it was dif cult for most of

mothers to complete the questionnaires because they

spent most of their time in hospital. Another limita-

tion included constant presence in the hospital envi-

ronment and the mismatch between the time of pres-

ence and working shifts of nurses, which was resolved

by continued presence in their workplace. Finally, since

the data has been collected from a small city, caution

should be exercised in generalizing the results to other

areas and other healthcare environments. With regard

to these limitations and given that this study has been

implemented in a correlational manner, causal relation-

ships are not clear in it. Thus, to obtained more accu-

rate results, it is recommended that causal relationships

between the research variables be determined by an edu-

cational approach in future studies using experimental

and quasi-experimental methods and since the qual-

ity of the mother’s relationship can have a signi cant

impact on compatibility and cognitive features of the

child, stress including job stress which is one of the most

important types of stress should be under the control of

individuals and organizations and steps must be taken

to reduce it. In this respect, institutions and organiza-

tions are recommended to provide an environment so

that the employee can work with more peace of mind.

This peace of mind can include working time manage-

ment, timely payment of salaries and bene ts, reducing

the working pressure using additional forces and also

selection of individuals with respect to their personal-

ity and psychological characteristics. Besides, because

the personality type of people determines their type of

behavior in the face of stressors, it is suggested that the

presence of individuals in the workplace be used with

regard to their abilities before their assignment. For this

purpose, personality tests can be applied. Apart from

these measures, it is also recommended that individuals

who are under extra pressure at work should be screened

and trained using cognitive and behavioral techniques.

To this end, individual and group therapies can also be

named.

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