The influence of gender and emotional versus instrumental support on cardiovascular reactivity in African-American adolescents

Research suggests that females seek out, prefer and are more receptive to e motional support (encouragement), and that males seek our, prefer and are m ore receptive to instrumental support (problem-solving). Thus, we hypothesi zed that boys would show lower blood pressure (BP) reactivity in response t o instrumental than emotional or no support, and that girls would show lowe r BP reactivity response to emotional than instrumental or no support. Fort y-eight healthy African-American adolescents (50% males) participated in a role play conflict task and were randomized to receive either emotional, in strumental, or no support (presence only) from a confederate. Boys showed l ower systolic blood pressure (SBP) reactivity in the instrumental than in t he emotional or no support conditions and lower recovery SEP as compared to boys in the emotional or no support conditions. A similar pattern of resul ts was demonstrated for diastolic blood pressure(DBP) reactivity. Girls, ho wever did not demonstrate lower BP reactivity in response to emotional as c ompared to instrumental support. These findings suggest that instrumental a nd emotional support differentially influence cardiovascular (CV) reactivit y in African-American boys versus girls.