Can Male-Provided Social Support Buffer the Cardiovascular Responsivity to Stress in Men? It Depends on the Nature of the Support Provided

Research suggests exaggerated cardiovascular (CV) responsivity to psychosocial stress may be an underlying mechanism in the development of cardiovascular disease. Social support has been shown to buffer exaggerated CV response to stress. However, this buffering relationship has not been found to occur when men act to support other men. Thirty-one healthy, college- aged men were randomly assigned to one of three supporttype groups [Instrumental Support (IS), Emotional Support (ES), No Support (NS)]. All men participated in a research protocol that involved blood pressure (BP) and heart rate (HR) measurement during resting, stressor, and recovery periods. During administration of a math stressor, a close male friend offered instrumental or emotional support or a male stranger offered no support to the research participant. Repeated measures ANOVAs and follow-up analyses revealed that men receiving instrumental support exhibited significantly less diastolic blood pressure (DBP) reactivity (p<.02) and better recovery from stress (p<.01) than men in either the ES or NS groups. The stress-buffering hypothesis posits that if one receives social support during stressful situations, the overall physiological stress load should be dampened. Our research conditionally supports this hypothesis.