title: Exploring moderating effects of John Henryism Active Coping on the relationship between education and cardiovascular measures in Korean Americans.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  John Henryism Active Coping (JHAC) is defined as a strong behavioral predisposition to cope with stressors in an effortful and determined manner. The well-known inverse relationship between socioeconomic status (SES) and blood pressure (BP) has been hypothesized to be stronger for individuals who have high JHAC than those with low JHAC, suggesting that JHAC may place people with low SES at higher cardiovascular risk. Previous studies testing this hypothesis have presented mixed findings; therefore, this study was conducted to test the JHAC hypothesis by examining the main and interaction effects of SES and JHAC on cardiovascular risk (measured by BP and arterial stiffness [AS]).
  
  
  METHODS
  The sample was 102 Korean Americans (aged 21-60years). Measures included age, sex, body mass index, smoking, SES (measured by income and education), JHAC (measured by the 12-item JHAC Scale), BP, and AS.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In terms of the SES measures, only education was significantly related to systolic BP (p=0.003), diastolic BP (p=0.001), and AS (p<0.000). The interaction effects of education and JHAC on systolic BP and AS were also significant (p=0.019 and p=0.018, respectively), indicating that the inverse relationships of education to systolic BP and AS were more prominent in subjects with lower JHAC scores.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Contrary to the JHAC hypothesis, JHAC may be associated with low cardiovascular risk in people with low education in certain groups. Studies are recommended to examine potential beneficial effects of JHAC on cardiovascular health in a larger sample and to identify their mechanisms.
authors.affiliation: University of Virginia, School of Nursing, United States. Electronic address: jl3zj@virginia.edu.
authors.forename: Jeongok G
authors.initials: JG
authors.lastname: Logan
authors.affiliation: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, School of Nursing, United States.
authors.forename: Debra J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Barksdale
authors.affiliation: University of Texas, School of Public Health at San Antonio Regional Campus, United States.
authors.forename: Lung-Chang
authors.initials: LC
authors.lastname: Chien
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000328:Adult; D001213:Asian / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D001794:Blood Pressure; D015992:Body Mass Index; D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology*; D004522:Educational Status; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007182:Income; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012307:Risk Factors; D012923:Social Class; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D059289:Vascular Stiffness
keywords: Arterial stiffness; Blood pressure; John Henryism Active Coping; Korean Americans (in order of relevance); Social economic status