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Health Check: Is Expressing Anger Associated with Good or Bad Health?

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28/01/2015

Is Expressing Anger Associated with Good or Bad Health?

BBC World Service - Health Check, Is Expressing Anger Associated with Good or Bad Health?

Why the association between anger and health depends on your culture

Why the association between anger and health depends on your culture. Also, clamping down on child marriage in Ivory Coast, and tackling sexual bullying in young people

It has traditionally been thought that expressing your anger can be associated with increased blood pressure and higher rates of heart disease. But new research just published in the journal Psychological Science suggests that this is only true in some cultures. Professor Shinobu Kitayama, from the University of Michigan in the United States, looked at large populations in the US and Japan and measured anger being expressed as well as blood pressure and markers of inflammation. The results and analysis have just been published in the journal Psychological Science. 
 
Child Marriage
If girls get married when they are very young, they are more likely to contract HIV, be subjected to domestic violence and even die during child birth. Parts of West Africa have more child brides than anywhere else in the world, but in Ivory Coast a recent court case might change all that. The BBC’s Tamasin Ford reports from the city of Bouake.


Sexual Bullying
Researchers at Leeds University have examined what they call ‘sexual bullying’, which can encompass everything from speculation about who has and has not had sex to remarks about appearance or sexuality and sexual harassment. The consequences of this type of bullying are that they often leave girls or boys feeling anxious or humiliated and in serious cases can occasionally lead to self-harm or suicide. 
As part of the project entitled Addressing Sexual Bullying Across Europe, young people in in five countries - Latvia, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Italy and the UK - were given questionnaires and took part in focus groups. Based on the research findings and recommendations, a peer-to-peer intervention was then piloted in the second year. It is being launched alongside discussion of the results at a conference this week.

(Photo: An angry man holding his head in rage)

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