title: Cardiovascular responsivity to stress: family patterns and the effects of instructions.
abstract: Cardiovascular responses to two stressful tasks, as well as to instructions regarding the first task, were assessed in two generations of the same biological family (preadolescent children and their middle-aged parents). Information on the presence of hypertension and other cardiovascular disorders was also obtained for the grandparent generation. Results for the middle-aged normotensive adults confirmed previous observations among young adults of cardiovascular hyperresponsivity among offspring of hypertensive parents; hyperresponsivity was also observed during an instructions period prior to active participation in the task. Personality variables (Type A; hostility) were not related to the observed hyperresponsivity. Assessments of similarity of cardiovascular responses between preadolescent children and their parents were more equivocal; previous studies showing positive results have, for the most part, evaluated children who were somewhat older than those in the present study.
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001143:Arousal; D001794:Blood Pressure; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006339:Heart Rate; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000235:genetics* / Q000523:psychology; D008297:Male; D010556:Personality Tests; D012306:Risk; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000150:complications*; D014434:Type A Personality