Childhood abuse and social anxiety symptoms among young adults: Moderating role of respiratory sinus arrhythmia suppression to social stress.

Abstract Background Childhood abuse (CA) has been considered as an environmental risk factor for the development of social anxiety symptoms. Respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) is a biomarker that has been found to interact with environmental stressors to affect psychopathological symptoms. However, little is known whether RSA moderates the relationship between CA and social anxiety symptoms. Objective The current study aimed to examine the relationships between CA and two forms of social anxiety symptoms including social performance anxiety symptoms (SPAS) and social interaction anxiety symptoms (SIAS), and the moderating role of baseline RSA and/or RSA suppression to a social-evaluative stress in these links. Participants and setting A total of 157 Chinese undergraduate students (Mage = 18.96, SD = 0.85, 85 % females) participated in this study. Method Participants completed the short form of Childhood Trauma Questionnaire, Social Phobia Scale and Social Interaction Anxiety Scale to assess CA, SPAS and SIAS, and then underwent a social stress protocol (a public speech task) during which their baseline RSA and stress induced RSA were obtained. Results CA was positively correlated with SPAS but was not correlated with SIAS. RSA suppression to social stress moderated the associations between CA and two forms of social anxiety symptoms, such that CA was positively associated with SPAS and SIAS among individuals with blunted RSA suppression, but not among those with greater RSA suppression. Conclusions Greater social stress RSA suppression as a better physiological regulation marker might ameliorate the negative effect of CA on social anxiety symptoms.