In our lives, we face countless situations in which we are observed and evaluated by our social interaction partners. Social-evaluative threat is frequently associated with strong neurophysiological stress reactions, in particular, an increase in cortisol levels. Yet, social variables do not only cause stress, but they can also buffer the neurophysiological stress response. Furthermore, social ...

OBJECTIVES Traditionally, it has been hypothesized that highly anxious/emotionally reactive subjects may have exaggerated social stress response. We examined the relationship between self-reported anxiety, emotional reactivity, and social stress response. METHODS We investigated the relationship between personality scales of trait-state anxiety, subjective autonomic reactivity, and salivary c...

OBJECTIVE To investigate the relationship between social support and coagulation parameter reactivity to mental stress in men and to determine if norepinephrine is involved. Lower social support is associated with higher basal coagulation activity and greater norepinephrine stress reactivity, which in turn, is linked with hypercoagulability. However, it is not known if low social support intera...

INTRODUCTION Financial stress is an important source of distress and is related to poor mental and physical health outcomes. The present study investigated whether tangible social support could buffer the effect of financial stress on psychological and psychosomatic health. METHODS Two separate postal surveys were sent to random samples in five counties in Sweden in 2004 and 2008, with a tota...

Social anxiety is a prevalent condition affecting individuals to varying degrees. Research on autism spectrum disorder (ASD), a group of neurodevelopmental disorders marked by impairments in social communication, has found that social anxiety occurs more frequently in this population. Our study aims to further understand the multimodal manifestation of social stress for adolescents with ASD ver...

Cross-sectional analyses of data collected from a large sample of incoming college freshmen were used to determine whether the perceived availability of social support protects persons from stress-induced depressive affect; whether social competence, social anxiety, and self-disclosure are responsible for the stress-protective effect of perceived social support; and whether these social skill m...

The purpose of the present study was to examine Hypothalamus-Pituitary-Adrenal (HPA) axis reactivity in social anxiety. The present study used a standardized psychosocial stress protocol (the Trier Social Stress Test; TSST; [Kirschbaum, C., Pirke, K.M., Hellhammer, D.H., 1993. The 'Trier Social Stress Test'-a tool for investigating psychobiological stress responses in a laboratory setting. Neur...

Background and Objectives: Preeclampsia is a multifactorial disease which is the main cause of maternal and neonatal morbidity and mortality in many countries. Spiritual wellbeing plays a vital role in coping stress and has a positive effect on improving the individuals' health. The present study aimed to investigate the relationship of spiritual wellbeing with perceived stress and perceived so...