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Social participation and cardiovascular stress-response adaptation: Evidence for enhanced stress tolerance
  • Tracey Keogh,
  • Siobhán Howard
Tracey Keogh
University of Limerick

Corresponding Author:[email protected]

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Siobhán Howard
University of Limerick
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Abstract

Diminished cardiovascular reactivity is a proposed marker of motivational dysregulation and is related to a range of adverse behavioural and health outcomes. Social participation represents the frequency an individual engages in social activities, is a form of motivated behaviour, and has been recently linked to lower cardiovascular responses to acute psychological stress. With recent work emphasizing the importance of assessing adaptation of the cardiovascular response to recurrent stress, the aim of the current study is to build on previous work by examining the relationship between social participation and cardiovascular stress response adaptation. Analyses were conducted using a general linear model and previously obtained data from the Pittsburgh Cold Study 3 (PCS 3). Two hundred and thirteen participants (M = 30.13; SD = 10.85) completed a social participation measure and had their systolic and diastolic blood pressure (SBP, DBP) and heart rate (HR) monitored across two separate standardized stress testing sessions. In line with previous research, lower social participation was related to lower cardiovascular responses to stress. Findings also indicate that higher levels of social participation were associated with greater blood pressure habituation to recurrent stress. Given that cardiovascular habituation to recurrent stress signifies good health, the implications of these findings are discussed. Key words: social participation, cardiovascular reactivity, cardiovascular habituation, blood pressure, Pittsburgh Cold Study.