Social Stratification and Risk for Cardiovascular Disease: Examination of Emotional Suppression as a Pathway to Risk

Pers Soc Psychol Bull. 2019 Aug;45(8):1202-1215. doi: 10.1177/0146167218808504. Epub 2018 Dec 10.

Abstract

This article examines whether emotional suppression is associated with socioeconomic position (SEP) in a community sample of Black and White men, and whether emotional suppression may help explain the aggregation of multiple biopsychosocial risk factors for cardiovascular disease at lower SEP (social support, depression, cardiovascular stress reactivity). Aim 1 tests whether multiple indicators of SEP show a consistent graded association with self-reported trait suppression, and whether suppression mediates associations between SEP and perceived social support and depressive affect. Aim 2 tests whether suppression during a laboratory anger recall task mediates associations between SEP and cardiovascular reactivity to the task. All measures of higher SEP were associated with lower suppression. Findings in this racially diverse sample of adult men suggest that socioeconomic disparities in emotional suppression may be more likely to confer cardiovascular risk through disruption of affect and social relationships, than through direct and immediate physiological pathways.

Keywords: cardiovascular physiology; depression; emotion regulation; social support; socioeconomic position.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Anger / physiology
  • Autonomic Nervous System / physiopathology
  • Black or African American
  • Blood Pressure / physiology
  • Cardiovascular Diseases / epidemiology*
  • Depression / epidemiology
  • Depression / psychology
  • Emotional Regulation*
  • Heart Rate / physiology
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Mental Recall
  • Risk Factors
  • Social Class*
  • Social Support*
  • Stress, Psychological / physiopathology
  • Stress, Psychological / psychology
  • White People