Cardiovascular responsivity to stress: family patterns and the effects of instructions

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.