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Psychological, situational, and gender predictors of cardiovascular reactivity to stress: A multivariate approach

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Abstract

This study examined whether relationships between anger expression, hostility, social evaluative anxiety, and a presumed mechanism for coronary heart disease development, cardiovascular reactivity (CVR) to stress, are moderated by stress situation and gender and whether such relationships are attenuated by inadequate assessments. Subjects (47 men, 47 women) were assigned randomly to either a Harassment or a Social Evaluation condition, under which they performed a reaction time task. SBP, DBP, and HR measures were recorded during baseline and task. Multiple regression analyses indicated that expressed anger was related to CVR only among men in the Harassment condition; that hostile men who express anger showed the most CVR across situations, and that the traits assessed here did not predict CVR among women. Results suggest that assessments of coronary-risk and interventions to reduce risk may need to take into account attitudes, styles of emotional expression, environmental factors, and gender.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State University of New York at Stony Brook, 11790, Stony Brook, New York

    John W. Burns & Edward S. Katkin

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  1. John W. Burns
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  2. Edward S. Katkin
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This research was supported in part by an NIMH predoctoral fellowship (F31MH09836) awarded to John W. Burns and by a grant from the American Heart Association (89-01-3G) awarded to Edward S. Katkin.

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Burns, J.W., Katkin, E.S. Psychological, situational, and gender predictors of cardiovascular reactivity to stress: A multivariate approach. J Behav Med 16, 445–465 (1993). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00844816

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