MODERNIZATION IN THE SAMOAS AND CHILDRENS REACTIVITY - A PILOT-STUDY

This investigation studied the potential effects of societal moderniza tion on Samoan children's blood pressure and heart rate reactivity to a standardized television video game procedure. Ethnic Samoan children were sampled from Western Samoa (N = 72), a relatively underdeveloped country with a largely agricultural economy, and American Samoa (N = 70), a territory of the United States that has undergone substantial m odernization due to recent economic aid. Results indicated that Wester n Samoans demonstrated significantly greater systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, and heart rate reactivity than American Samo ans. These data, in conjunction with previous data, suggest that the h emodynamic effects of an acute stressor are inversely associated with societal modernization and an individual's adoption of a lifestyle ref lecting integration into a modernized society. Further work is needed to examine the implications of this hypothesis and the associations am ong concrete measures of modernization and children's cardiovascular r isk.