Self-disclosure and coping styles in men with cardiovascular reactivity

The purpose of this study was to investigate self‐disclosure, emotion‐focused, and problem‐focused coping styles among men with borderline hypertension and two groups of normotensive men differentiated by parental hypertension. Because blood pressure reactivity may discriminate between hypertensive and normotensive men, subjects in these three groups were categorized as high or low cardiovascular reactors based on their blood pressure response to a mental arithmetic task. Self‐disclosure and coping styles were investigated in relation to status effects within the doctor‐patient relationship. Men with exaggerated blood pressure reactivity were less self‐disclosive and used fewer emotion‐focused coping strategies than men with no blood pressure reactivity. Normotensives with a history of parental hypertension were less self‐disclosive than normotensives without a history of parental hypertension. © 1993 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.