Why the study?
Does academic stress and examination performance affect cardiovascular reactivity in college students?
Does academic stress and examination performance affect cardiovascular reactivity in college students?
College-related factors such as academic fear of failure and examination stress significantly influence cardiovascular stress responses in student participants, which should be considered when interpreting cardiovascular reactivity research.
Academic stress may confound reactivity findings in student samples; leaves open generalizability beyond academic settings.
Stress arising from academic performance affects many college students. Moreover, students account for the majority of participants in cardiovascular reactivity research. The current research comprised three brief experiments investigating different aspects of student samples. In Experiment 1, students' (n = 30) academic fear of failure was found to be negatively correlated with systolic blood pressure reactivity. In Experiment 2, students' ( n = 13) blood pressure was found to be significantly elevated 2 weeks before college examinations, compared with postexamination levels. Finally, in Experiment 3, students' (n = 19) examination performance was positively correlated with preexamination cardiovascular reactivity. These findings suggest specific college‐related factors that influence the cardiovascular stress response in students and, therefore, should aid the interpretation of much research conducted in cardiovascular health psychology.
No takes yet. Share an insight, caveat, or question.
Brian M. Hughes (2004) studied this question.
Synapse has enriched 5 closely related papers on similar clinical questions. Consider them for comparative context: