Life Stress, Health, and Blood Pressure in Black College Students

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Abstract
A multivariate stress and health risk model is pro posed to test the contribution of stress on blood pressure in Black college students. Measures of stress reaction pattern, level of stress exposure, personal level of distress, the availability of social supports, personal and family health history, and health status were ob tained from a sample of 191 Black university students. Multiple regression analyses predicting systolic and diastolic blood pressure overall and by gender sup ported the hypothesis that stress interacts with prior familial health history, personal health status, and level of subjective distress to predict blood pressure. Stress affected health and blood pressure differently for Black males and females.