Hemodynamic responses to laboratory stressors in children and adolescents: The influences of age, race, and gender

Abstract

The objectives of the present study were threefold: (a) to compare the patterns of hemodynamic responding of children and adolescents during behavioral challenges, (b) to examine whether previously reported cardiovascular reactivity differences between Black and White children are dependent on pubertal status, and (c) to assess whether gender differences in hemodynamic response reported for adults is similar in children. One hundred fifty-nine children (ages 8-10 years) and adolescents (ages 15-17 years), equally divided along gender and racial lines, participated in a laboratory protocol consisting of a reaction time task, a mirror tracing task, a cold forehead challenge, and a stress interview. Results indicated that adolescents responded with greater beta-adrenergic activation than did children and that gender differences in reactivity often reported for adults emerged more clearly in the adolescents than in the children. This study failed to replicate prior findings of greater vasoconstrictive responses in Black children as compared with White children.

The adolescent brain and age-related behavioral manifestations

“…There is limited but intriguing evidence that adolescents may also show an increased physiological responsivity to stressors, at least when indexed in terms of cardiac measures. Adolescents show a greater blood pressure (BP) and cardiac output response to various laboratory test procedures than do children, a pattern of findings consistent with an increase in b-noradrenergic reactivity during adolescence, with little evidence of alterations in a-noradrenergic or parasympathetic nervous system activation [10].…”

Psychophysiological Cardiovascular Functioning in Hostile Defensive Women

“…The argument that defends this refers to the stereotype response: if the cardiovascular reactivity is a characteristic of an individual and is physiological stable and consistent, then the same response patterns will be seen every time the individual is faced with a situation of stress. Evidently with certain limitations, laboratory situations can be regarded as a procedure that provides information on an individual's physiological functioning in real life (Allen, et al, 1987;Allen & Matthews, 1997;Palmero, et al, 2002;Moseley & Linden, 2006;Palmero, et al, 2007). Thus individuals, whose pattern of cardiovascular functioning is characterized by the expression of exaggerated responses, are those who, with time, are likely to experience some cardiovascular dysfunction (Everson, et al, 1996;Markovitz, et al, 1998;Strike, et al, 2003).…”

Distinct Effects of Repeated Restraint Stress on Basolateral Amygdala Neuronal Membrane Properties in Resilient Adolescent and Adult Rats

“…Adolescence, the transition period from childhood to adulthood, is associated with heightened perception of stress experience and greater responses to stress exposure compared with younger or older individuals (Compas et al, 1993;Allen and Matthews, 1997;Spear, 2000). Repeated or extreme stressors during adolescence lead to increased risk of depressive and anxiety behaviors, and there is a sharp increase in the incidence of psychiatric disorders during adolescence (Buchanan et al, 1992;Heim and Nemeroff, 2001;Teicher et al, 2003;Grant et al, 2006).…”