Associations between general trait anxiety, trait social anxiety and cardiovascular responses to social and non-social stressors

Abstract

ObjectiveThe present study sought to examine whether anxiety propensity dimensions (general trait anxiety vs. trait social anxiety) interact with stressor types (tasks with social vs. non-social challenges) to determine cardiovascular stress responses. MethodsA 2 × 3 mixed-factorial experimental design was employed. The State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, the Social Performance and Social Interaction Anxiety Scales were administered to 233 participants, who engaged in a stress task with either social or non-social challenges during which their cardiovascular data were continuously collected. ResultsGeneral trait anxiety negatively predicted heart rate (HR), systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP) reactivity (β = −0.16, p = 0.001; β = −0.17, p = 0.001; β = −0.18, p < 0.001), and positively predicted HR, SBP, DBP recovery (β = 0.16, p = 0.012; β = 0.15, p = 0.014; β = 0.15, p = 0.011), regardless of stress types. Social performance anxiety (β = −0.23, p = 0.002; β = −0.25, p = 0.001; β = −0.24, p = 0.001) and social interaction anxiety (β = −0.22, p < 0.001; β = −0.25, p < 0.001; β = −0.22, p < 0.001) only negatively predicted HR, SBP, DBP reactivity to the stress task with social challenges. No associations were observed between trait social anxiety and cardiovascular recovery from the stress task with social or non-social challenges. ConclusionsThese findings suggest that different trait anxiety dimensions interact with stressor types in affecting cardiovascular stress responses, which have different health implications.