Relationships among Negative Life Events, Physiological Reactivity, and Health Symptomatology

Abstract

College undergraduates classified as high (n = 25) and low (n = 25) on recent life stress participated in an experiment involving a novel laboratory stressor. Heart rate and pulse arrival time (PAT) were measured during baseline, anticipation, testing, and recovery periods of the experiment. The results did not replicate those obtained by Pardine and Napoli¹ in that high and low life stress subjects did not show differential physiological reactions. In addition, regression analyses failed to demonstrate that physiological reactivity moderated the relationship between life stress and subsequent self-reported psychiatric or physical health symptomatology. The present findings demonstrated neither the stressbuffering effects of physiological reactivity nor a relationship between life stress and reactivity when the latter was conceptualized as an outcome.

Index Terms:

• life stress