Is an anxious support provider an effective one? Social support provider anxietly and cardiovascular function

Update Item Information
Publication Type thesis
School or College College of Social & Behavioral Science
Department Psychology
Author Kent, Robert Gordon
Title Is an anxious support provider an effective one? Social support provider anxietly and cardiovascular function
Date 2014-12
Description Social support has important and reliable links to physical health. The association of perceived social support with health is particularly well understood, and is consistently found in the reasech literature. Received social support, however, is less reliably linked to health outcomes, and laboratory studies manipulating received support often find it results in heightened physiological reactivity and distress. One factor thought to influence the effectiveness of received social support is anxiety on the part of the social support provider. The present study examined the main and interaction effects of social support provider anxiety and support role within participant dyads (provider, receiver) on reactivity to a assigned to a support role within a dyad, and each dyad was randomized to either a low provider anxiety condition, or to a condition in which heightened provider anxiety was induced with a social evaluation manipulation. Participants completed measures of self-esteem, state and trait anxiety, perceived threat and coping ability, as well as measures of dominance, valence, arousal. Cardiovascular reactivity was assessed via blood pressure and impedance cardiography. Results supported the hypothesis that social support provider anxiety resulted in less effective social support, and also indicated health costs of providing support under nonoptimal conditions.
Type Text
Publisher University of Utah
Subject Cardiovascular health; Cardiovascular reactivity; Social network; Social relationships; Social support; Stress reactivity
Dissertation Institution University of Utah
Dissertation Name Master of Science
Language eng
Rights Management Copyright © Robert Gordon Kent 2014
Format Medium application/pdf
Format Extent 469,968 bytes
Identifier etd3/id/3315
ARK ark:/87278/s6dc1921
Setname ir_etd
ID 196880
Reference URL https://collections.lib.utah.edu/ark:/87278/s6dc1921