Hostility, cultural orientation, and casual blood pressure readings in African Americans

Evidence suggests that hostility correlates with blood pressure levels in African-American samples. However, some studies have reported an inverse relationship, while others have found the relationship between blood pressure and hostility to be positive. Other literature suggests health outcomes in general, and blood pressure in particular, are related to cultural orientation in African-American samples. In the present study, six casual measures of blood pressure and heart rate in a sample of 90 African-American college students were aggregated and correlated with measures of hostility and cultural orientation. Correlational and regression analyses revealed a weak positive relationship between hostility and systolic blood pressure. The relationships between the cardiovascular measures and cultural orientation were more consistent. The tendency to embrace mainstream Euro-American values, such as materialism, individuality, and competitiveness, was associated with more rapid heart rate and higher diastolic blood pressure levels for both men and women. The relationship between systolic blood pressure and cultural orientation emerged for men only. The findings encourage further research into the relationship between personality variables and cardiovascular activity in African-American samples.