This proposal addresses a National Occupational Research Agenda (NORA) priority area, Special Populations at Risk. A multi-racial sample of urban adolescents and young adults of both genders who previously participated in three NIH-funded studies while in high school will be recruited for further longitudinal follow-up. All subjects were determined to be at risk for the development of essential hypertension as adults when they were originally enrolled in the Project Heart studies in 9th grade. These subjects (n=525) now range in age from 16-26 years: 131 remain in high school and 394 have made the transition from high school to work or to work and further education. The impact of the work environment will be examined in the context of other social relations, including family, peer group, neighborhood and school, all of which are embedded in the local community and broader society. An overall objective of this study will be to evaluate the contributions of the combined and separate effects of occupation and social environments on adolescents as they mature and develop into adulthood. A primary focus will be on the impact of job strain and the characteristics of work on cardiovascular (CV) risk, including measures of blood pressure (BP), both resting and ambulatory, serum cholesterol, and body composition. Jobs characterized by high strain (low job control/high job demand/low social support) are expected to be associated with higher resting and ambulatory BP. A second set of analyses will test the hypothesis that emotional vulnerability (anger/high conflict/low social competence) demonstrated in high school predicts both perception of job strain and CV risk. Potential moderating effects of social support from family, friends, co-workers and supervisors and neighborhood environments (neighborhood disadvantage, SES) on CV risk will be examined.
| Fitzgerald, Sheila T; Brown, Kathleen M; Sonnega, John R et al. (2005) Early antecedents of adult work stress: social-emotional competence and anger in adolescence. J Behav Med 28:223-30 |
