Personality and exercise as buffers in the stress-illness relationship

Additive effects of exercise and personality-based hardiness are consistent with the view that hardiness buffers by transforming the events themselves so as to decrease their stressfulness, whereas exercise buffers by decreasing the organismic strain resulting from experiencing stressful events.

Abstract

This study examined exercise and personality-based hardiness as independent buffers of the stressful event-illness relationship. Self-report measures of exercise, hardiness, stressful events and illness were obtained from 137 male business executives. Hardiness and exercise each interact with stressful events in decreasing illness. Further, subjects high in both hardiness and exercise remain more healthy than those high in one or the other only. These additive effects are consistent with the view that hardiness buffers by transforming the events themselves so as to decrease their stressfulness, whereas exercise buffers by decreasing the organismic strain resulting from experiencing stressful events.