Hypertension is one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality in African Americans. In an attempt to delineate the factors which underlie the development of hypertension in African Americans, studies examining cardiovascular responses to psychological and behavioral stressors--a proposed risk factor for hypertension, within this group are warranted. In a sample of 300 African American males and females, the proposed study will investigate the effects of psychosocial factors on emotional, psychological, and physiological responses to two laboratory tasks. One laboratory task will be a standardized speech stressor that addresses inter- or intra-group racism experienced by the participant. During the other standardized speech task participants will speak about their thoughts/feelings about animal rights. Both laboratory tasks will be preceded by a baseline period and will be followed by a recovery period. Heart rate and systolic and diastolic blood pressure will be measured before, during, and after each laboratory task using an automated blood pressure cuff. A contextual model is presented that is designed to provide a framework for exploring the relationship between perceived racism and cardiovascular reactivity to ethnically-relevant stimuli. The proposed research will test the following hypotheses that stem directly from this model: 1) participants in the high total-racism group will show greater cardiovascular reactivity and less recovery to both laboratory tasks than participants in the low total-racism group; 2) participants in the low skin tone tertile (darkest participants) will show greater cardiovascular reactivity and less recovery to both laboratory tasks than participants in the medium skin tone tertile; participants in the medium skin tone tertile will show greater cardiovascular reactivity and less recovery to both laboratory tasks than participants in the high skin tone tertile; 3) participants in the low problem-focused/high emotion-focused coping group will exhibit greater cardiovascular reactivity to both laboratory tasks than participants in the other three problem-focused/emotion-focused groupings; 4) darker skin tone will be related to greater perceptions of inter-group racism among male and female participants; 5) darker skin tone will be related to greater perceptions of intra-group racism among male and female participants; 6) participants' age and socioeconomic status will both be inversely related to total perceptions of inter- and intra-group racism. The primary analytic strategy will be a multivariate analysis of variance design for hypotheses 1-3 and a multiple regression design for hypotheses 4-6. This project will contribute to the knowledge base on the relationship between ethnically-relevant stress and cardiovascular adjustment in African Americans that may have long-term implications for hypertension and cardiovascular diseases in this group.
