Social relationships are a crucial determinant of both mental and physical health. This effect is partly due to social buffering of stress. Animal studies suggest that social buffering is mediated via the oxytocin system, while studies in humans are sparse and limited by the low ecological validity of laboratory settings. In the present study, participants (N = 326) completed smartphone questionnaires four times a day over 4 to 5 days, measuring stressors, negative affect, and social context to assess social buffering. We found that under stress, participants reported a higher need for social company. Further, the impact of prior stressful events on momentary negative affect was attenuated by the perceived pleasantness of current social company. This social buffering effect was moderated by haplotypes of the oxytocin receptor gene, based on two well-described single nucleotide polymorphisms (rs2268498, rs53576). Effects were robust when controlling for gender and age, applying different data quality criteria, and even apparent in genotype-based analyses. Our findings demonstrate that social buffering and its modulation by oxytocin system characteristics have implications for life as lived outside the laboratory.

中文翻译：

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催产素与社交公司的压力缓冲作用：日常生活中的基因研究。


社会关系是心理和身体健康的重要决定因素。这种效应部分是由于社会压力缓冲所致。动物研究表明，社会缓冲是通过催产素系统介导的，而对人类的研究却很少，并且受到实验室环境生态有效性较低的限制。在本研究中，参与者 (N = 326) 在 4 至 5 天内每天完成四次智能手机问卷，测量压力源、负面情绪和社会背景，以评估社交缓冲。我们发现，在压力下，参与者对社交陪伴的需求更高。此外，先前的压力事件对暂时负面情绪的影响因当前社交公司的愉悦感而减弱。这种社会缓冲效应通过催产素受体基因的单倍型来调节，该单倍型基于两个充分描述的单核苷酸多态性（rs2268498、rs53576）。当控制性别和年龄、应用不同的数据质量标准时，效果非常强劲，甚至在基于基因型的分析中也很明显。我们的研究结果表明，社会缓冲及其通过催产素系统特征的调节对实验室外的生活具有影响。