title: Do behavioral responses mediate or moderate the relation between cardiovascular reactivity to stress and parental history of hypertension?
abstract: To examine whether differences in behavioral responses to stress mediated or moderated the relation between cardiovascular response to stress and parental history of hypertension, 64 healthy undergraduates-16 men with hypertensive parents (PH+), 16 men without hypertensive parents (PH-), 16 PH+ women, and 16 PH- women-participated in a mental arithmetic task, mirror tracing task, and 2 interpersonal role plays. PH+ participants exhibited higher resting heart rates than PH- participants and higher resting systolic blood pressures (SBPs) than PH- women. PH+ participants exhibited greater SBP responses to tasks and engaged in more negative verbal and nonverbal behavior across tasks than PH- counterparts. Differences in behavioral responding neither mediated nor moderated the observed relation between parental history status and SBP response to stress.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, West Virginia University, Morgantown 26506-6040, USA.
authors.forename: Nicole L
authors.initials: NL
authors.lastname: Frazer
authors.forename: Kevin T
authors.initials: KT
authors.lastname: Larkin
authors.forename: Jeffrey L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Goodie
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000339:Affect; D000786:Anger; D001007:Anxiety / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006339:Heart Rate / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology* / Q000235:genetics*; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009633:Nonverbal Communication; D010290:Parents; D013060:Speech; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology*; D014705:Verbal Behavior