CONSISTENCY OF CHILDRENS HEMODYNAMIC-RESPONSES TO LABORATORY STRESSORS

Hemodynamic responses to three standard laboratory stressors (i.e., po stural change, video game, forehead cold) were evaluated in 341 childr en (170 males) who had a mean age of 11.2 +/- 2.6 years. Inter-task co nsistency was evaluated for five physiological parameters for all stre ssor pairings. Evidence of consistency in systolic and diastolic blood pressure, heart rate, cardiac output, and total peripheral resistance responses to all three stressors was observed. The highest and most c onsistent correlations across stressors were observed for cardiac outp ut and total peripheral resistance responses. The need for clarificati on in the categorization of laboratory stressors used to measure react ivity is discussed.