Recent life events in school children: race, socioeconomic status, and cardiovascular risk factors. The Minneapolis Children's Blood Pressure Study.

During a study of children's blood pressure, recent life events were measured to determine their occurrence in elementary school children and to determine their relationship to blood pressure and other possible precursors of adult hypertension. Data about life events for a one-year period were obtained from a stratified sample of 1505, 6- to 9-year-old children enrolled in Minneapolis public schools. Children's age and sex were not related to life events. Parental education, employment, and income were related to the child's life event frequency. Indian and black children tended to experience significantly more undesirable life events than white children. Life events frequency was not related to baseline or to follow-up blood pressure or to obesity or other risk factors for adult hypertension.