ARE CARDIOVASCULAR REACTORS TO ASOCIAL STRESS ALSO REACTORS TO SOCIALSTRESS

The authors tested the generalizability of measures of cardiovascular reactivity to asocial and social stress among fathers, mothers, and th eir adolescent sons. Results showed significant associations between r eactivity to individual psychomotor tasks and to conflict resolution o nly for mothers, suggesting that laboratory measures of reactivity obt ained during asocial tasks are of limited value in predicting reactivi ty during social tasks. Given that interpersonal constructs are import ant to risk for cardiovascular diseases, these findings point to the i mportance of measuring cardiovascular reactivity during social stress, not only during asocial achievement stress.