Population Health Research Brief Series

Working hard and persisting through challenges (i.e., striving) are often encouraged for children who face adversity, but these coping strategies come with hidden costs.

This brief describes how striving in the face of adversity influences mental wellbeing and cardiovascular health. The authors find trade offs.

Children facing extreme adversity with high striving have fewer depressive symptoms and less hostility than lower striving children. However, high adversity children who are also high strivers have higher cardiovascular disease risk (elevated blood pressure and an enlarged heart wall) than lower striving children.