Anger and Hostility Among Married Couples: Pet Dogs as Moderators of Cardiovascular Reactivity to Stress. K. Allen, & J. Blascovich. (Paper presented at a conference of the American Psychosomatic Society), Psychosomatic Medicine, 58, 59 (1996).
This study explored the effect on cardiovascular reactivity during a stressful task of the presence of the subject’s spouse and either friend or pet dog. In light of evidence suggested that cynical hostile attitudes may undermine the moderating potential of interpersonal support, the study also focused on self-reported hostility and relationship closeness within marriage.
The hypotheses were:
- that the buffering effects of social support during the performance of a stressful task would be influenced by the nature of the support - dog or spouse.
- that subjects would benefit from the support of a pet dog whether their cynical hostility scores were high or low.
120 couples who owned a dog and 120 couples who did not own a dog took part in the study which was conducted in the participants own homes. All subjects performed 3 stressful tasks (mental arithmetic, cold pressor and give a speech about a stressful topic) in each of 4 counterbalanced conditions: alone; with dog (or friend) and spouse; with spouse and all were asked to complete:
- the Cook-medley Hostility Scale (Cook & Medley 1954)
- the Multidimensional Anger Inventory (Siegel 1986)
- the Relationship Closeness Inventory (Berscheid, Snyder & Omoto 1989)
- the Pet Attitude Inventory (Wilson, Netting and New 1987)
Measures of physiological stress response were heart rate, systolic blood pressure and diastolic blood pressure. Out of all four experimental conditions, the highest degree of cardiovascular stress response was found in the condition where the spouse was present (p<.01). Next highest was in the alone condition. Then came the condition that included the spouse together with either friend or the dog and the least amount of reactivity was observed in the dog alone condition (p<.01). These results applied to all 3 stressful tasks and were most pronounced amongst subjects with high cynical hostility scores.
There was a significant positive correlation (.83) between self-reported cynical hostility and closeness in marriage. All dog owners had moderate to highly positive attitudes towards pets, as did 66% of participants without pets.
The conclusions are:
1. that the nature of social support is an important factor in understanding the relationship between stress, social support and cardiovascular reactivity.
2. that individuals with high levels of cynical hostility, previously thought to be resistant to the potential benefits of social support, can benefit from the presence of a pet dog, perceived as a non-evaluative source of social support.
