ArticlePsychosomatic medicine2017
The Role of Agonistic Striving in the Association Between Cortisol and High Blood Pressure.
Article in Psychosomatic medicine, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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Who cites it
6 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 12 citations in OpenAlex.
- Chronic Stress A Potential Suspect Zero of Atherosclerosis: A Systematic Review.Frontiers in cardiovascular medicine · 2021Pooled it
- Bridging exposure and disease: serum hormones as potential mediators between PBDEs and preeclampsia.BMC pregnancy and childbirth · 2026Article
- Impact of Perceived Social Support on the Association Between Anger Expression and the Risk of Stroke: The Circulatory Risk in Communities Study (CIRCS).Journal of epidemiology · 2023Article
- Developing a prediction model for estimating adrenocorticotropic hormone changes in patients undergoing scheduled open hepatectomy.Annals of translational medicine · 2022Article
- Recent Progress of Chronic Stress in the Development of Atherosclerosis.Oxidative medicine and cellular longevity · 2022Review
- Chronic stress: a critical risk factor for atherosclerosis.The Journal of international medical research · 2019Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
objectiveA social action theory of chronic stress proposes that agonistic striving (seeking to influence or control others) impairs cardiovascular health by magnifying the impact of high adversity-induced cortisol levels on blood pressure. We tested three predictions of social action theory: (1) the social action theory taxonomy of regulatory strivings characterizes young adults from high-adversity neighborhoods; (2) high cortisol levels predict high blood pressure more reliably in the subgroup with the agonistic striving profile than in subgroups with other profiles; (3) the association of higher cortisol and higher blood pressure with agonistic striving is not explained by negative affect (depressive symptoms/dysphoria, anger, hostility).
methodsParticipants were young adults (N = 198, mean [SD] age = 32 [3.4] years); 71% female; 65% black) from disadvantaged urban neighborhoods. Motive profiles (including agonistic strivings) were assessed using the Social Competence Interview. Cortisol levels were derived from saliva samples; blood pressure level was obtained during two days of ambulatory monitoring. Psychological measures of negative affect were assessed using questionnaires.
resultsThe predicted taxonomy of regulatory strivings was replicated in this sample; the interaction between cortisol and motive profile was significant (F(2, 91) = 6.72, p = .002); analyses of simple effects disclosed that higher cortisol levels predicted higher ambulatory blood pressure only in individuals who exhibited agonistic striving. Depressive symptoms/dysphoria, trait anger, and hostility were not correlated with agonistic striving, cortisol, or blood pressure.
conclusionsAgonistic striving may represent a distinctive (and novel) social-cognitive mechanism of toxic stress and cardiovascular risk.
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