Family Structure Influences Cardiovascular Reactivity in College Students

Summary

While researchers have documented sex differences in the way male and female children behaviorally respond to divorce of their families, data providing information on the impact of this psycho-social stressor on the physiological stress response is lacking. We hypothesized that family structure would affect cardiovascular reactivity in college students describing a frustrating event with students from disrupted families exhibiting greater reactivity. We also predicted we would find sex differences in the responses. Cardiovascular responses in men and women who were college students from Intact (child raised by both biological parents, n = 59) or Disrupted families (divorced, blended families, with one case of single parent, n = 46) were measured in response to three verbal tasks (High Affect provocation, Low Affect provocation and Mental Arithmetic). Significant interactions among Task Content, Sex and Family Structure were found for heart rate despite no significant differences in perceived family stress. The analyses consistently revealed that women from Disrupted families exhibited greater increases in heart rate whereas the men exhibited an attenuated response. This suggests that disruption of family structure may produce long-term changes in cardiovascular responses to stressors. Furthermore, the data suggest that men and women from disrupted families develop cardiovascular stress responses that can be differentiated according to sex, with the men perhaps being able to engage vagal tone.

Key Words:

• Cardiovascular reactivity
• family structure
• divorce