Date of Award

2020

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Psychology

Abstract

Childhood stress has been correlated with deleterious health outcomes and illnesses such as cardiovascular disease (Felitti et al., 1998; Su et al., 2014). The biopsychosocial model of health conceptualizes childhood development and identifies possible mechanisms of this relationship. The Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) Study found a significant relationship between the number of ACEs and heart disease (Felitti et al., 1998). As the number one killer in the United States, cardiovascular disease (CVD) is frequently addressed in the research literature (Garbers et al., 2018), with evidence suggesting a correlation among cardiovascular reactivity (i.e., blood pressure), and CVD (Brindle et al., 2016; Hendrix & Hughes, 1997; Manuck, 1994). Research has shown that a specific adverse experience, bullying in childhood, is correlated with stronger autonomic nervous system response to stressful stimuli (Newman, 2014). The literature has also examined possible protective qualities such as resilience (Davydov, Stewart, Ritchie, & Chaudieu, 2010). The goal of the present study was to examine the relationship between social evaluative threat and cardiovascular reactivity during a social stress test, as well as the potential moderating role of resilience and adverse childhood experiences, such as bullying. The hypotheses were partially supported in that those exposed to any form of social evaluative threat experienced greater increases in systolic blood pressure (SBP) compared to a control group. While no moderating effects were found for resilience or other adverse experiences, history of bullying had a significant negative correlation with SBP. A thorough overview of possible mechanisms of action are reviewed and directions for future research are provided in the context of the results.

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