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Cognitive appraisal biases: An approach to understanding the relation between socioeconomic status and cardiovascular reactivity in children

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Annals of Behavioral Medicine

Abstract

We tested the hypothesis that lower socioeconomic status (SES) children display heightened cardiovascular reactivity during stressful situations because they are more likely to appraise a wide variety of social situations, including ambiguous ones, as threatening. A sample of 201 children and adolescents, half White and half African American, were assessed initially. Ninety of these children were retested an average of 3 years later. At both time points, children were interviewed about appraisals of hostile intent and feelings of anger in response to scenarios with negative or ambiguous outcomes. Cardiovascular reactivity to 3 laboratory stress tasks was measured. Initially, lower SES was associated with greater hostile intent appraisal and anger during ambiguous scenarios across all participants. In addition, responses to ambiguous scenarios partially mediated the relation between SES and vascular reactivity. Longitudinally, low SES African American participants showed higher mean intensity of hostile intent appraisals during ambiguous scenarios, and these appraisals mediated the SES-reactivity relationship. These findings suggest that the way in which children appraise ambiguous social situations plays an important role in the relation between SES and cardiovascular reactivity.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Washington University, One Brookings Drive, Campus Box 1125, 63130, St. Louis, MO

    Edith Chen Ph.D.

  2. University of Pittsburgh, USA

    Karen A. Matthews Ph.D.

Authors
  1. Edith Chen Ph.D.
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  2. Karen A. Matthews Ph.D.
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Additional information

This research was supported by National Institute of Health Grants HL25767 and MH18269, the John D. and Catherine T. Mac Arthur Foundation Research Network on SES and Health, and the Pittsburgh Mind-Body Center (HL65111 and HL65112).

We thank Linda Gallo and Gregory Miller for helpful comments on earlier versions of this article.

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Chen, E., Matthews, K.A. Cognitive appraisal biases: An approach to understanding the relation between socioeconomic status and cardiovascular reactivity in children. ann. behav. med. 23, 101–111 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1207/S15324796ABM2302_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1207/S15324796ABM2302_4

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