Modeling relationships among socioeconomic status, hostility, cardiovascular reactivity, and left ventricular mass in African American and White children.

In African American and White children and adolescents (N = 147), socioeconomic status (SES) was measured in 2 ways: (a) using neighborhood-level measures of population density, median income, educational attainment, and the number of children born to single mothers and (b) using family-level measures of parents' occupation and education. Structural equation modeling revealed that both lower family SES and lower neighborhood SES were independently associated with greater hostility and consequently greater cardiovascular reactivity to laboratory stressors in African Americans. Independent of neighborhood SES, only lower family SES was associated with greater cardiovascular reactivity in Whites. Heightened cardiovascular reactivity was associated with greater left ventricular mass (LVM) in Whites and marginally greater LVM in African Americans. Results suggest the importance of using multiple indicators of SES and confirm the relationship between SES and LVM in African Americans and Whites, albeit through different pathways.     

The relationship between resting heart rate and aggression in males is racially variant

Although resting heart rate is thought to be a generalizable risk factor for aggression, very little research has examined whether this relationship varies by race. We addressed this limitation using longitudinal data from the Pittsburgh Youth Study. Current data are from 197 men who participated in a teenage biosocial study (mean age = 15.7 years) and adult follow-up study (mean age = 32.1 years). Teenage resting heart rate interacted with race to predict teenage and adult aggression. The relationship between heart rate and aggression was significant in White, but not in Black males. To our knowledge, this is the first study to find that the relationship between resting heart rate and aggression is racially variant, suggesting that resting heart rate may not be a generalizable biomarker for conduct problems. At an intervention-level, findings could contribute to the development of more accurate risk assessment tools that take into account racial variance in risk factors.     

Assessing the Adherence to Guidelines of Media Reporting of Suicide Using a Novel Instrument—the “Risk of Imitative Suicide Scale” (RISc)

Media guidelines for reporting of suicide are considered important in suicide prevention because of the risk of “imitative” suicide. There are currently no established tools for the quantification of quality of reporting. We sought to develop and validate a quality assessment instrument—the Risk of Imitative Suicide Scale (RISc). The RISc appears capable of discriminating reliably between adherent and nonadherent articles. Our data suggest that adherence to guidelines is inconsistent, and there are major differences between web‐based and print media. The RISc could be used to evaluate effectiveness and consistency of media engagement with suicide prevention strategies.     

Chronic stress burden, discrimination, and subclinical carotid artery disease in African American and Caucasian women.

This study examined the association between a composite index of stress that included measures of life events, ongoing stress, discrimination, and economic hardship and subclinical carotid disease among 109 African America and 225 Caucasian premenopausal women. African Americans reported more chronic stress and had higher carotid intima-media thickness (IMT) as compared with Caucasians. Among African Americans only, the composite stress index and unfair treatment were associated with higher IMT. These effects were partially mediated by biological risk factors. African American who reported experiencing racial discrimination had marginally more carotid plaque than did those who did not report experiencing racial discrimination. The results suggest that African Americans may be particularly vulnerable to the burden of chronic stress.     

Are sociodemographic variables markers for psychological determinants of health?

Argues that the robust associations between sociodemographic variables and the major causes of morbidity and mortality are due in part to correlated psychological factors. To make this case concrete, the article reviews the psychological determinants of morbidity and mortality that are correlated with educational attainment and sex. It discusses the importance of health psychologists' studies of age, sex, ethnicity, and educational/occupational status to understanding why, how, and in whom psychological factors are contributors to disease.