Marital Quality Buffers the Association Between Socioeconomic Status and Ambulatory Blood Pressure
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BRIEF REPORT
Marital Quality Buffers the Association Between Socioeconomic Status and Ambulatory Blood Pressure Jenny M. Cundiff, PhD 1 & Wendy C. Birmingham, PhD 1 & Bert N. Uchino, PhD 1 & Timothy W. Smith, PhD 1
# The Society of Behavioral Medicine 2015
Abstract Background Socioeconomic status is robustly associated with rates of death and disease. Psychophysiological stress processes are thought to account for a portion of this association. Purpose Although positive and supportive relationships can buffer psychophysiological stress responses, no studies have examined whether the quality of a primary adult relationship—marriage—may buffer the negative association between socioeconomic status and stress-related disease processes. Methods The current study examines the interaction between income and marital quality (supportive vs. ambivalent) on individuals’ daily ambulatory blood pressure, a valid and reliable indicator of cardiovascular risk. Results Results revealed that supportive marital relationships buffered the otherwise higher ambulatory diastolic blood pressure associated with low income. Conclusions Results are consistent with the buffering hypothesis of social support and suggest that a supportive spouse may buffer stress-related autonomic processes linking low socioeconomic status to risk for cardiovascular disease.
Keywords Socioeconomic status . Income . Marital quality . Relationship quality . Physical health . Ambulatory blood pressure
* Jenny M. Cundiff [email protected] 1
University of Utah, 3811 O’Hara St, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA
Lower socioeconomic status (SES) is associated with increased rates of death and disease [1, 2]. Higher prevalence and severity of stress and negative emotional states have been hypothesized to account for a portion of this association [2, 3]. In addition to these risk factors, resources that may protect against poor health, such as positive and supportive social relationships, also vary by SES. For example, lower SES individuals report lower levels of social support and poorer marital quality [4, 5]. However, not all individuals of low SES report poor quality social relationships, and there is some indication that social relationships may protect against the otherwise negative impact of lower SES on health (e.g., [6]). Outside the context of social class, supportive social relationships have been associated with decreased rates of death and disease and the protective effect of social support on health is substantial [7]. Supportive social relationships have been proposed to protect health, in part, by buffering the negative health consequences associated with psychosocial stress [8]. This buffering is thought to occur, in part, by dampening psychophysiological stress responses [9] such as sustained autonomic arousal, which appear to link stress to risk for cardiovascular disease [10, 11]. Hence, under increased stress, social support should be beneficial; however, social support may have little effect in the absence of significant stress, when there is l
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