When rumination counts: Perceived social support and heart rate variability in daily life

Abstract

Rumination and social support could modulate cardiac activity. Although both variables are somehow interrelated, they are often studied independently, and their interplay is seldom considered. We aimed to analyze the interaction of rumination and perceived social support on vagally mediated heart rate variability (HRV) in daily life. The sample consisted of 117 healthy participants (57% female, mean age = 27.9, SD = 5.5 years). Ambulatory HRV (root mean squared successive differences), respiration, body position, and body movements were recorded continuously on three consecutive weekdays. Momentary social, situational, and cognitive-affective variables (affect, ruminative thoughts, perceived social support) were assessed using a computerized diary. There was a significant interaction between momentary rumination and perceived social support on ambulatory HRV: When participants were involved in social interactions with low social support, concurrent rumination was associated with attenuated HRV. However, when rumination was accompanied by a strong sense of support, HRV significantly increased. The quality of social interactions and rumination seem to interact in daily life to predict cardiac autonomic control. The results stress the necessity to consider the interplay of psychological and social factors in order to evaluate beneficial or adverse effects on cardiac health.

Covariation of psychobiological stress regulation with valence and quantity of social interactions in everyday life: disentangling intra- and interindividual sources of variation

“…However, it is noteworthy that contact valence was assessed on visual analogue scales and, consequently, negative social interactions, which can have a negative impact on psychobiological stress (e.g.,Friedman et al 2012), could also be assessed and were part of the analyses.5 However, previous studies showed that levels of perceived social support or being engaged in any social interaction during daily life routines can moderate the effects of momentary rumination and depression on heart rate variability (HRV; as another marker associated with the SAM axis)(Gerteis and Schwerdtfeger 2016;Schwerdtfeger and Friedrich-Mai 2009). Given the supposed association of sAA and HRV, these results could be in line with those described in the present work.…”

Toward a social psychophysiology of vagally mediated heart rate variability: Concepts and methods in self‐regulation, emotion, and interpersonal processes

“…Other stressors that evoke decreases in vmHRV include aversive sounds (i.e., infant crying, violence) (Tkaczyszyn et al, 2013) and emotion-arousing films (Frazier, Strauss, & Steinhauer, 2004). Effects of stress generalize beyond the laboratory context, as increased environmental noise during daily activities is associated with decreases in vmHRV (Kraus et al, 2013) and rumination is associated with reduced vmHRV during unsupportive social interactions (Gerteis & Schwerdtfeger, 2016).…”

Beyond Self-Report: A Review of Physiological and Neuroscientific Methods to Investigate Consumer Behavior

“…An increasing number of studies have documented the reliability and validity of these tools (e.g., Wallén et al, 2012 ; Heathers, 2013 ; Liu et al, 2013 ; Akintola et al, 2016 ). For example, researchers measured participants’ heart rate for 3 weeks with a wearable heart rate monitor and found that individuals’ HRV was affected by the degree of social support they received at that time ( Gerteis and Schwerdtfeger, 2016 ). These results are consistent with earlier laboratory-based studies that observed HRV to be associated with stress (e.g., Shaffer et al, 2014 ) and suggest that measuring physiological responses to real-life events/stimuli is a promising way to estimate consumers’ experience in real life.…”