Hostility in Employed Women

Abstract

Ninety-one women employed full-time outside the home were administered the Cook-Medley Hostility Scale. Information concerning various work -and nonwork-related variables was obtained by questionnaire and interview. Women with higher hostility scores reported having more stressful job experiences and feeling more daily stress and tension. Hostility scores were not found to be significantly related to stressful marital experiences or quality of general social support, although there were trends for hostility scores to be negatively related to social support from specific sources-namely, the women's supervisors and husbands. Finally, higher hostility scores were found to be related to greater outward expression of anger. The possibility is mentioned that having more stressful work and other daily experiences may contribute to mediating the relation between the Cook-Medley Hostility Scale and coronary artery disease in women.