Caregiving stress increases risk for poor health. The overproduction of inflammatory markers is a core process contributing to this effect. In this study the authors investigated whether formal and informal social support act as protective factors against stress‐induced immune dysregulation. Fifty‐six parents of children with an autism spectrum disorder completed questionnaires on formal support services, informal social support, self‐rated health, and daily somatic symptoms, and they provided a blood sample for analysis of C‐reactive protein (CRP), a biomarker of inflammation. The results indicated that greater informal social support was associated with lower CRP and that a higher number of formal support services received by the family was related to better self‐rated health, fewer daily somatic symptoms, and lower CRP. Moreover, the impact of support services on the parents' CRP levels increased with child age. These findings highlight the role of formal and informal support in protecting the health of individuals facing caregiving stress across the life course.

Background Disrupted sleep quality is one of the proposed mechanisms through which chronic stress may lead to depression. However, there exist significant individual differences in sleep reactivity, which is the extent to which one experiences sleep disturbances in response to stress. Purpose The aim of the current study was to investigate whether low high-frequency heart rate variability (HRV), as a psychophysiological marker of poor emotional and physiological arousal regulation, predicts stress-related sleep disturbances associated with greater risk of depression symptoms. Methods Using a chronic caregiving stress model, 125 mothers of adolescents with developmental disorders and 97 mothers of typically developing adolescents had their resting HRV and HRV reactivity recorded and completed a measure of depressive symptoms, as well as a 7 day sleep diary to assess their sleep quality. A moderated mediation model tested whether sleep quality mediated the association between chronic stress exposure and depressive symptoms and whether HRV moderated this mediation. Results After controlling for participant age, body mass index, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and employment status, poor sleep quality mediated the association between chronic stress and depressive symptoms. Resting HRV moderated this indirect effect such that individuals with lower HRV were more likely to report poorer sleep quality in the context of chronic stressor exposure, which, in turn, was related to greater depressive symptoms. Conclusions Lower HRV, a potential biomarker of increased sleep reactivity to stress, is associated with greater vulnerability to stress-related sleep disturbances, which, in turn, increases the risk for elevated depressive symptoms in response to chronic stress.

Positive dyadic coping is a specific interpersonal process that may modulate systemic inflammation among individuals exposed to chronic stress. (PsycINFO Database Record

Sleep is a basic biological process supporting emotion regulation. The emotion regulation function of sleep may be particularly important in the context of chronic stress. To better understand how chronic stress and sleep interact to predict mood, 66 parents of children with autism completed daily diaries assessing parenting stress, negative mood, and sleep quality for 6 consecutive days. Hierarchical linear modelling revealed that daily negative mood was predicted by between-person differences in parenting stress and between-person differences in sleep efficiency. Further, between-person differences in sleep efficiency and within-person differences in sleep satisfaction moderated the impact of stress on mood. These data suggest that sleep disturbances may exacerbate the association between stress and mood in the context of chronic parenting stress. Further, high parenting stress appears to heighten the impact of transient sleep disturbances on mood.

Respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) is a biomarker of cardiac vagal tone that has been linked to social functioning. Recent studies suggest that RSA moderates the impact of interpersonal processes on psychosocial adjustment. The goal of this study was to assess whether RSA would moderate the association between dyadic coping (DC) and depressive symptoms. Eighty cohabiting couples raising preschool children completed the Dyadic Coping Inventory, the Center for Epidemiological Study-Depression scale and had their RSA assessed during a laboratory session. Couples completed follow-up assessments of depressive symptoms 6 and 12 months later. Data were analyzed using an Actor-Partner Interdependence Model. Results indicated that RSA moderated the actor effect of negative DC on depression in men, such that men with lower RSA had a stronger association between their own ratings of negative DC within the couple relationship and their own depressive symptoms, compared to their counterparts with higher RSA. RSA also moderated the partner effect of delegated DC on depressive symptoms. Among men with higher RSA, there was a significant negative association between their partner’s ratings of delegated DC within the couple relationship and the men’s depressive symptoms, whereas partner-rated delegated DC was unrelated to depressive symptoms among men with lower RSA. These results suggest that men with higher RSA may possess social skills and abilities that attenuate the association between stressful marital interactions and negative mood.