How Implicit Motives and Everyday Self-Regulatory Abilities Shape Cardiovascular Risk in Youth
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ORIGINAL ARTICLE
How Implicit Motives and Everyday Self-Regulatory Abilities Shape Cardiovascular Risk in Youth Craig K. Ewart, Ph.D. & Gavin J. Elder, M.A. & Joshua M. Smyth, Ph.D.
Published online: 15 December 2011 # The Society of Behavioral Medicine 2011
Abstract Background and Purpose Tested hypotheses from social action theory that (a) implicit and explicit measures of agonistic (social control) motives and transcendence (self-control) motives differentially predict cardiovascular risk; and (b) implicit motives interact with everyday selfregulation behaviors to magnify risk. Methods Implicit/explicit agonistic/transcendence motives were assessed in a multi-ethnic sample of 64 high school students with the Social Competence Interview (SCI). Everyday self-regulation was assessed with teacher ratings of internalizing, externalizing, and self-control behaviors. Ambulatory blood pressure and daily activities were measured over 48 h. Results Study hypotheses were supported: implicit goals predicted blood pressure levels but explicit self-reported coping goals did not; self-regulation indices did not predict blood pressure directly but interacted with implicit agonistic/ transcendence motives to identify individuals at greatest risk (all p≤0.05). Conclusions Assessment of implicit motives by SCI, and everyday self-regulation by teachers may improve identification of youth at risk for cardiovascular disease. Keywords Emotion regulation . Stress . Cardiovascular disease . Adolescent health . Implicit motives
Biological models of stress-related illness describe pathologies that develop gradually when one’s exposure to stressful conditions is recurring or prolonged [1]. Such models call C. K. Ewart (*) : G. J. Elder : J. M. Smyth Department of Psychology and Center for Health and Behavior, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY 13244, USA e-mail: [email protected]
for psychosocial accounts explaining how people become chronically embroiled in stress-inducing circumstances. Social action theory proposes that exposure to healthdamaging stress is greatly affected by personal goals and self-regulatory capabilities. Goals shape the type, frequency, and character of social encounters, and self-regulatory skills modulate the magnitude, duration, and patterning of physiologic responses that encounters evoke. Individuals who often seek to influence or control others, for example, can easily provoke hostile exchanges and coercive struggles that generate sustained elevations of blood pressure [2] that are detrimental to cardiovascular health [3]. The ability to regulate an interaction and the emotions it evokes largely determines how long arousal persists [4]. Psychological mechanisms of motivation and self-regulation thus work together to influence levels of chronic stress: goals tend to increase stress exposure directly, by selecting and shaping social challenges, and self-regulatory capabilities tend to affect stress exposure more indirectly, by modulating physiologic responses [5]. In this analysis, goals represent the “why” of st
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