Perceived Social Support and Latent Herpesvirus Reactivation: Testing Main and Stress-Buffering Effects in an Ethnically Diverse Sample of Adults.

OBJECTIVE: Perceived social support is consistently associated with physical health outcomes, and one potential physiological mechanism underlying this association is immune function. In this study, we tested both the main and stress-buffering effects of perceived social support on cellular immunity measured via latent herpesvirus reactivation. METHODS: Data were collected from a community-based sample of 1443 ethnically diverse adults between the ages of 25 and 90 years. Participants self-reported measures of perceived social support, stressful life events, daily hassles, and perceived stress, and provided a blood sample to assess antibody titers to the herpes simplex virus type 1 and Epstein-Barr virus (EBV). RESULTS: In accordance with the main effect hypothesis, results indicated that perceived social support was directly associated with EBV viral capsid antigen antibody titers (ß = -0.06, 95% confidence interval = -0.12 to -0.01, p = .029). Perceived social support, however, did not interact with stressful life events, daily hassles, or perceived stress to influence latent herpesvirus reactivation (p values > .05). Neither race/ethnicity nor age moderated any of the interactions between perceived social support and the stress measures on latent herpesvirus reactivation (p values > .10). CONCLUSIONS: Overall, the current study supports the main effect hypothesis, according to which higher levels of perceived social support were associated with lower levels of herpesvirus antibody titers.

Endocrine and immunomodulatory effects of social isolation and loneliness across adulthood.

Experimental and observational evidence agreed on two interconnected biological mechanisms responsible for the links between social isolation/loneliness and health: alterations in the activity of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis and compromised functioning of the innate immune system. However, most existing studies did not consider the simultaneous impact of social isolation and loneliness on biological outcomes. Further, they only assessed one biological outcome at a time and did not test any moderation by age, despite empirical and theoretical evidence supporting the plausibility of this hypothesis. To address these gaps in the literature, we tested the associations between two indicators of social isolation (living status and frequency of social contacts) and loneliness and daily cortisol secretion and two markers of systemic inflammation (C-reactive protein [CRP] and interleukin-6 [IL-6]) in a sample of adults aged between 25 and 75 years old. Data were drawn from the Midlife in the United States (MIDUS) Refresher study (N = 314). We found that, above and beyond loneliness, living alone was associated with a flattened diurnal cortisol slope (i.e., reduced changes in cortisol levels during waking hours that are indicative of a dysregulated HPA axis) and higher CRP levels. On the other hand, higher loneliness was associated with higher IL-6 levels, above and beyond our measures of social isolation. Loneliness did not mediate any of the effects of social isolation on either cortisol or CRP, and age did not moderate any of the relationships reported above. Our findings support the idea that social isolation and loneliness have unique and independent endocrine and immune effects despite being linked to each other. Understanding the specific biological pathways through which these aspects of social well-being exert their effects on health across the lifespan has critical consequences for both intervention development and public health policies.

Predictions for sex of first born child reflect masculine and feminine characteristics in male and female undergraduates.

Previous research has identified physical and behavioral differences between parents who produce sons and those who produce daughters. However, the possibility that men and women have predictions about the sexes of their offspring based on these differences, or any other interoceptive cues, has not been investigated. We compared the dominance, sociosexual orientation, estradiol, testosterone, and 2D:4D ratios of men and women who predicted they would conceive a boy as their first child with those who predicted a girl. Women who predicted they would have a boy were more dominant and less sociosexually restricted than those who predicted they would have a girl. Men who predicted they would have a girl had higher salivary estradiol and higher (more feminine) 2D:4D ratios than those who predicted they would have a boy. Possible implications of these results are discussed in the context of evolutionary theory.