ADOLESCENT BLOOD-PRESSURE, ANGER EXPRESSION AND HOSTILITY - POSSIBLE LINKS WITH BODY-FAT

An uncertain relation between health and angry/hostile behaviour exist s in the literature on adolescents. With data from a pilot study, one possible reason for this is explored: health measures such as blood pr essure as well as angry/hostile behaviours may change with, or depend upon physical maturity, body size and body fatness. The sample consist s of 60 African-, Hispanic-, and Anglo-American adolescents (15 to 16 years of age) drawn from a public school in Houston, TX. Using resting diastolic blood pressure as a model, in a sex stratified analysis, th e following conclusions were reached: Physical maturity in girls and b ody height in boys were related to ethnicity in the sample and were co nfounders of the blood pressure and anger relationship. In girls secre tive anger ('anger-in') and hostility were associated with increased b ody fat; expressive anger ('anger-out') in boys is associated with inc reased conicity (central body fat distribution) (p < 0.01). These asso ciations were independent of height and physical maturity. Hostility w as not significantly related to diastolic blood pressure in boys after adjusting for bright and conicity. 'Anger-in' was significantly and p ositively related to diastolic blood pressure in girls (p < 0.01). Thi s relationship was strongly mediated by per cent body fat, because the association of 'anger-in' and blood pressure was no longer statistica lly significant when the model included body fat. The results suggest that measures of physical maturity and more refined measures of body f at and body fat distribution should be considered in studies attemptin g to link adolescent blood pressure with anger expression.