Early Antecedents of Adult Work Stress: Social-Emotional Competence and Anger in Adolescence

We hypothesized that youth with elevated coronary heart disease (CHD) risk who exhibit diminished social-emotional competence and frequent anger in adolescence experience increased occupational stress after becoming adults. Perceived job control and support from coworkers in 57 young Black and White men and women were regressed on measures of social problem-solving skill (SPS) and anger arousal (AR) obtained 5 years earlier when participants were in high school. In models controlling for grade point average (GPA), SPS and GPA independently predicted coworker support in adulthood; anger in high school predicted diminished job control. These findings suggest that occupational stress may have identifiable social-emotional antecedents early in life.