Collisional deactivation of the vibrational level upsilon=1 of the bending mode by rare gases has been studied for both the excited (A) over tilde(2)A(1) and ground (X) over tilde(2)B(1) electronic states of PH2. Quenching constants have been determined. While a non-SSH behavior has been observed in the dependence of the relaxation probability upon the mass of the collision partner in the ground state denoting a possible predominance of an intramolecular V-R energy transfer process, the cross sections fit quite well the Parmenter and co-workers’ potential well depth correlation rule for both the electronic states indicating that their interactions with the quenchers occur for both of them under the influence of long range attractive forces.