Access to Social Support in Life and in the Laboratory Combined Impact on Cardiovascular Reactivity to Stress and State Anxiety

Social support is associated with lower cardiovascular disease risk. We examined the effects of perceived network support and availability of functional support in the laboratory on blood pressure and heart rate (HR) reactivity to acute stress. When functional support was available, participants with low perceived network support had significantly lower HR reactivity than participants with high perceived network support (p=.04). Conversely, when functional support was not available, participants with low perceived network support had significantly higher HR reactivity (p=.05). Self-reported anxiety post-stressor was significantly higher when functional support was not mentioned (p=.03).