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If you've ever suspected that women respond better to stress than men, you may be onto something. In the first effort since the 1950’s to identify a "new stress regulatory system," researchers from the University of California, Los Angeles, found that women and men cope with stress differently. The female response to stress may help explain why women experience fewer stress-related health problems and more nurturing relationships with partners and children. The UCLA researchers analyzed hundreds of studies and looked at the stress response of thousands of human and animal subjects. They found women were more likely to cope with stress by nurturing and protecting their young ("tend") and seeking social support from others ("befriend"). Whereas men typically reacted aggressively or abandoned stressful situations -- a response known as "fight or flight". Typically, when fathers (participating in one of the studies) came home after a stressful day of work, they responded to stress by wanting to be left alone, says Shelly E.
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