| Current reactivity research lacks sufficient attention to gender and an explanation for inconsistent results. This study examined whether family history of hypertension, specific emotions (anger, anxiety) or behavioral styles (assertiveness) influenced the cardiovascular responses to mental stress among a sample of college women.;The sample was composed of 102 (54 white and 48 nonwhite) undergraduate students, with a mean age of 21. Subjects with and without a family history of hypertension were administered a health questionnaire and several personality measures before being randomly assigned to either an environmental sounds or progressive relaxation tape. Following the tape, subjects were given a stressful serial subtraction task. Subjects then completed personality and personal response measures. Blood pressure and pulse were measured prior to the tape, immediately after the stressor, and at the end of the session.;Significant differences were not found between the relaxation tape groups. Positive and negative family history subjects did not differ significantly in their cardiovascular reactivity to mental stress. They obtained similar scores on various measures of anger, anxiety, and assertiveness. However, among negative family history subjects, post-stress anger and anxiety were positively correlated with cardiovascular response. Moreover, for this group of women, cardiovascular reactivity was positively associated with anger control and negatively related to the expression of anger directly to others. Among negative family history subjects, individuals who displayed the greatest increase in anxiety experienced a concomitant change in diastolic blood pressure and pulse reactivity. Individuals with a negative family history who displayed increased anger tended to have greater diastolic blood pressure and heart rate change immediately after stress. In contrast, for positive parental history subjects, increased anger was positively correlated with pulse reactivity during a later period. Body mass was the best predictor of blood pressure. However, assertiveness was found to be the most significant personality contributor on several cardiovascular measures.;It was proposed that differences in cardiovascular reactivity results using female samples may be due to use, by both positive and negative family history females, of Harburg's reflective coping style (assertiveness). The significance of these findings in developing a nonpharmacological treatment approach was explored. |
