Abstract
Objective Aging is theoretically accompanied by emotional gains, but physiological self-regulatory losses. Emotional and physiological regulation can be operationalized as the extent of an increase in negative affect and blood pressure upon experiencing a stressor (i.e., reactivity). The direction of age-based changes in negative affect reactivity to stressors is uncertain. In addition, evidence for age-based increases in blood pressure reactivity to stressors is based largely on age-based differences observed in cross-sectional and laboratory-based studies. The present study is the first to examine long-term longitudinal changes in stress-related reactivity for both blood pressure and negative affect in the natural environment. Methods A total of 375 healthy adults aged 50 to 70 years completed 6 days of hourly ambulatory blood pressure assessment and electronic diary reports of social conflict and task demand and control. Two hundred fifty-five participants repeated 3 days of assessment in a 6-year follow-up. With reactivity operationalized as the change in an outcome in association with momentary social conflict, task strain, or task demand (i.e., a model-derived slope parameter), multilevel models were used to assess aging-based change in blood pressure and negative affect reactivity over the course of the 6-year follow-up. Results Aging is associated with increased diastolic blood pressure reactivity to social conflict and task demand (βsocial_conflict = 0.48, p =.007; βtask_demand = 0.19, p =.005), increases in negative affect reactivity to social conflict and task strain (βsocial_conflict = 0.10, p <.001; βtask_strain = 0.08, p =.016), and increases in systolic blood pressure reactivity to task-based stress (βtask_strain = 1.29, p =.007; βtask_demand = 0.23 p =.032). Conclusion Findings suggest age-based increases in affective and cardiovascular reactivity to natural stressors.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 612-620 |
Number of pages | 9 |
Journal | Psychosomatic Medicine |
Volume | 84 |
Issue number | 5 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Jun 1 2022 |
Externally published | Yes |
Keywords
- Aging
- Ambulatory blood pressure
- Blood pressure reactivity
- Longitudinal analysis
- Negative affect reactivity
- Stress
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Applied Psychology
- Psychiatry and Mental health