دانلود رایگان مقاله انگلیسی نوسان ضربان قلب مرتبط با استرس روانی در حوزه اجتماعی متمایز - الزویر 2018

ABSTRACT

Objective: Psychosocial stress is associated with substantial morbidity and mortality. Accordingly, there is a growing interest in biomarkers that indicate whether individuals show adaptive (i.e., stress-buffering and healthpromoting) or maladaptive (i.e., stress-escalating and health-impairing) stress reactions in social contexts. As heart rate variability (HRV) has been suggested to be a biomarker of adaptive behavior during social encounters, it may be possible that inter-individual differences in HRV are associated with inter-individual differences regarding stress in distinct social domains. Methods: To test this hypothesis, resting state HRV and psychosocial stress was assessed in 83 healthy community-dwelling individuals (age: 18–35 years). HRV was derived from heart rate recordings during spontaneous and instructed breathing to assess the robustness of possible associations between inter-individual differences in HRV and inter-individual differences in psychosocial stress. Psychosocial stress was determined with a self-report questionnaire assessing stress in distinct social domains. Results: A series of categorical and dimensional analyses revealed an association between inter-individual differences in HRV and inter-individual differences in psychosocial stress: Individuals with high HRV reported less stress in social life, but not in family life, work life or everyday life, than individuals with low HRV. Conclusions: On basis of these findings, it may be assumed that individuals with high HRV experience less psychosocial stress than individuals with low HRV. Although such an assumption needs to be corroborated by further findings, it seems to be consistent with previous findings showing that individuals with high HRV suffer less from stress and stress-related disorders than individuals with low HRV.

4. Discussion

In the present study, we investigated whether inter-individual differences in HRV would be associated with inter-individual differences in psychosocial stress. In accordance with our predictions, we found an association between inter-individual differences in HRV and inter-individual differences regarding stress in social life. Individuals with high HRV reported less stress in social life than individuals with low HRV, indicating a decrease in psychosocial stress with increasing HRV. Contrary to our predictions, there was no association between interindividual differences in HRV and inter-individual differences regarding stress in family life. Stress in family life involved interactions with partners, which were described as participants' most important attachment figure [55], whereas stress in social life involved interactions with friends, which were no further described [55]. Given the importance of attachment figures for our mental and physical wellbeing [65,66], it is conceivable that interactions with partners are characterized by more intimacy than interactions with friends [e.g., [51,67–69]]. We may, thus, be more familiar with our partners than with our friends, implying that it may be more likely that our friends behave unexpectedly and unpredictably than our partners. Our friends may also be more likely to engage in threatening behavior than our partners with whom we lead intimate relationships that are characterized by mutual trust and respect. It may, thus, be more likely that we experience stress during interactions with our friends than with our partners [e.g., [49–51]]. This may explain why the association between inter-individual differences in HRV and inter-individual differences in stress were more pronounced in participants' social life than in participants' family life.