The role of positive affect in the association between stress and college student alcohol use.

OBJECTIVE: To examine the associations among stress, positive affect, binge drinking, and coping drinking motives. PARTICIPANTS: Students (n = 351, Mage=19.7, 74.6% female) at a northeastern public university. METHODS: Participants completed an online survey assessing perceived stress, frequency of experiencing positive emotions, frequency of binge drinking, and coping drinking motives. RESULTS: Stress and positive emotions were not significantly related to frequency of binge drinking but were significantly correlated with coping motives for drinking. Regression analyses with all predictors, age, and gender in the model revealed the same: stress and positive emotion were not significantly related to binge drinking but were significantly related to coping motives. The interaction between stress and positive emotions predicting frequency of binge drinking or coping motives was nonsignificant. CONCLUSIONS: Findings suggest the utility of exploring positive emotions in risk and resilience research focused on college student drinking and of targeting positive emotions to decrease students' coping-related alcohol use.

Positive Psychological Characteristics and Substance Use in First Nation Adolescents.

BackgroundNorth American Indigenous (NAI) adolescents experience disproportionate harm related to substance use compared to non-Indigenous adolescents. Strengths-based approaches to substance use prevention and treatment are consistent with Indigenous conceptualizations of health, which tend to be holistic and incorporate more spirituality and community than mainstream Western conceptualizations. Despite this, little is known about how positive psychological characteristics that might confer protection relate to substance use among NAI adolescents. Thus, the present study aims to examine the relations among life satisfaction, subjective happiness, self-compassion, and cigarette, marijuana, alcohol, and other drug use. MethodsParticipants were 106 reserve-dwelling First Nation adolescents located in Eastern Canada (Mage= 14.6 years, 50.0% female) who completed a paper-and-pencil survey regarding their substance use and psychological characteristics for a larger community-based participatory research project. ResultsGreater life satisfaction was significantly associated with decreased odds of lifetime (OR = 0.88, 95%CI [0.81, 0.96]) and current cigarette smoking (OR = 0.90, 95%CI [0.82, 0.99]). Greater subjective happiness was significantly associated with decreased odds of current marijuana use (OR = 0.83, 95%CI [0.71, 0.97]). Although significantly correlated with lower lifetime use of other drugs, self-compassion was not significantly associated with lifetime or current odds of substance use after controlling for age, gender, and other positive characteristics. DiscussionThis is one of the first studies to evaluate positive characteristics and substance use in NAI adolescents. Results point to positive characteristics that may be useful in substance use prevention and suggest the need for further research to further elucidate these associations.

PTSD and alcohol misuse: Examining the mediating role of fear of self-compassion among military veterans.

INTRODUCTION: The co-occurrence of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and alcohol misuse presents a significant clinical concern among military veterans. Fear of self-compassion, the active resistance to thinking and behaving compassionately toward oneself, may be an important consideration that underlies this relation. OBJECTIVE: The current investigation examined whether self-compassion and fear of self-compassion, separately, mediated the association between PTSD symptoms and alcohol misuse among a sample of military veterans. METHOD: Data were collected from 203 military veterans (M age = 35.08 years, 77.70% male, 72.2% White) who responded to an online survey. RESULTS: The findings indicated that both self-compassion and fear of self-compassion significantly explained the association between PTSD symptoms and alcohol misuse. Furthermore, fear of self-compassion explained this relation after adjusting for levels of self-compassion. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that both self-compassion and a fear of self-compassion may be important considerations in the PTSD-alcohol misuse relation; future work should extend these findings in longitudinal and intervention frameworks. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

PTSD's blame criterion and mental health outcomes in a community mental health treatment-seeking sample.

OBJECTIVE: Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a severe psychiatric condition that can manifest as a combination of debilitating symptoms, one of which is a distorted sense of responsibility for the traumatic event. The inclusion of DSM-5's PTSD D3 criterion (blaming self or others for the stressful experience) has received little research attention in regard to its relation to post-trauma mental health outcomes. To address this gap in literature, we examined the relevance of the clinical endorsement of the D3 criterion to PTSD symptomology and other posttrauma mental health outcomes. METHOD: Participants were 123 trauma-exposed, treatment-seeking individuals (Mage = 35.70, 68.3% female) who completed a series of self-report questionnaires assessing PTSD symptomology, depression severity, distress intolerance, rumination, and anger reactions. RESULTS: Independent t tests comparing those that clinically endorsed the D3 criterion (vs. those that did not) revealed that the clinical endorsement of blame was significantly associated with PTSD severity, depression, distress intolerance, and rumination. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings support the significance of PTSD's D3 criterion, and further emphasize the importance of addressing blame in posttrauma mental health outcomes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Morally injurious experiences and mental health: The moderating role of self-compassion.

INTRODUCTION: Military veterans are at heightened risk for developing mental and behavioral health problems. Morally injurious combat experiences have recently gained empirical and clinical attention following the increased rates of mental and behavioral health problems observed in this population. OBJECTIVE: Extending extant research, the current investigation assessed the relationship between morally injurious experiences and mental and behavioral health outcomes. Furthermore, it examined the potential protective role of self-compassion in these relationships. METHOD: Participants were 203 military veterans (M age = 35.08 years, 77.30% male) who completed online questionnaires. RESULTS: Analyses indicated that self-compassion significantly moderated the relationship between exposure to morally injurious experiences and posttraumatic stress disorder, depression severity, and deliberate self-harm versatility. CONCLUSIONS: These results highlight the potential clinical utility of self-compassion in military mental health, particularly in the context of morally injurious experiences. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

A Qualitative Study Exploring Female College Students' Instagram Use and Body Image.

Research demonstrates that mainstream media negatively impacts women's body image; less is known about social media, specifically Instagram. The purpose of the study was to explore how female college students use Instagram, and if using Instagram impacts body image. Since little is known, a descriptive qualitative approach was used. Six face-to-face focus groups with a total of 27 participants, aged 18-22 years, were conducted. The data were analyzed using a thematic analysis. Three themes related to Instagram use emerged: effortful posting, promotion of self, and seeking engagement. Participants put substantial effort into what they were posting, were careful to select the best images of themselves, and placed a lot of importance on receiving likes and comments. Three themes surfaced pertaining to body image: responding to beauty ideals, comparing self with others, and display of self. Participants recognized and strove to adhere to a variety of beauty standards; some discussed experiencing appearance dissatisfaction when trying to measure up to these ideals. Moreover, participants frequently compared their looks or the number of likes/comments with others. Additionally, when posting photos of self, participants took an audience perspective, expressing concern with how others perceived their appearance.

HPA-axis and inflammatory reactivity to acute stress is related with basal HPA-axis activity.

INTRODUCTION: Inflammation is drawing attention as pathway between psychosocial stress and health, and basal HPA axis activity has been suggested to exert a consistent regulatory influence on peripheral inflammation. Here we studied the relationship between basal HPA axis activity and inflammatory and HPA axis acute stress reactivity. METHODS: We recruited 48 healthy individuals and collected saliva for diurnal cortisol sampling at 6 points. Participants were previously exposed to the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) on two consecutive days. Plasma interleukin-6 (IL-6) and salivary cortisol reactivity to acute stress were measured, and their relationships with basal HPA axis activity were analyzed. RESULTS: Steeper cortisol awakening response (CAR) linear increase was related with stronger cortisol stress reactivity (γ=0.015; p=0.042) and marginally significantly with greater habituation (γ=0.01; p=0.066). Greater curvilinearity of CAR was related with stronger cortisol reactivity (γ=-0.014; p=0.021) and greater cortisol habituation (γ=-0.011; p=0.006). Steeper daily linear decline was related with significant or marginally significantly stronger cortisol and IL-6 reactivity (cortisol: γ=-0.0004; p=0.06; IL-6: γ=-0.028; p=0.031) and greater habituation (cortisol: γ=-0.002; p=0.009, IL-6: γ=-0.015; p=0.033). Greater curvilinearity of daily decline was related with stronger IL-6 reactivity (γ=0.002; p=0.024) and also greater cortisol and IL-6 habituation (cortisol: γ=0.00009; p=0.03, IL-6: γ=0.001; p=0.024). CONCLUSIONS: Patterns of basal HPA axis activity that are related with healthier outcomes were found to be related with stronger initial cortisol and IL-6 reactivity and greater habituation. This is an important step in understanding the long-term health implications of acute stress responsiveness, and future studies should employ longitudinal designs to identify the direction of these relationships.

Self-compassionate young adults show lower salivary alpha-amylase responses to repeated psychosocial stress.

In this study we tested the hypothesis that participants higher in dispositional self-compassion would show lower stress-induced reactivity of salivary alpha-amylase (sAA), a marker of sympathetic nervous system activation. Thirty-three healthy participants (18-34 years old) were exposed to a standardized laboratory stressor on two consecutive days. Self-compassion, self-esteem, and demographic factors were assessed by questionnaire and sAA was assessed at baseline and at 1, 10, 30, and 60 minutes following each stressor. Self-compassion was a significant negative predictor of sAA responses on both days. This relationship remained significant when controlling for self-esteem, subjective distress, age, gender, ethnicity, and Body Mass Index (BMI). These results suggest that self-compassion may serve as a protective factor against stress-induced physiological changes that have implications for health.

Rejection sensitivity and vulnerability to self-directed hostile cognitions following rejection.

We examined the hypothesis that rejection increases self-directed hostile cognitions in individuals who are high in rejection sensitivity (RS). In four studies employing primarily undergraduate samples (Ns = 83-121), rejection was primed subliminally or through a recall task, and self-directed hostile cognitions were assessed using explicit or implicit measures. Negative or neutral control conditions were used in three of the studies. Measures of RS were obtained in pretesting. High RS participants were more likely than low RS participants to report or show greater self-directed hostile cognitions in rejection conditions, compared to control conditions. Results held when controlling for depressive symptoms, history of self-directed hostile cognitions, and general hostility. RS may represent a unique vulnerability for self-directed hostile cognitions, a predictor of self-harmful behavior.

Measures of adiposity predict interleukin-6 responses to repeated psychosocial stress.

OBJECTIVE: Overweight and obese individuals, who comprise approximately two-thirds of the U.S. population, are at increased risk for developing a range of diseases. This increased risk may be due in part to maladaptive stress responses within this group, including heightened low-grade inflammation and HPA axis non-habituation. In this study we tested the relationship between adiposity, plasma interleukin-6 (IL-6) and HPA axis responses to repeated stress. METHODS: Sixty-seven healthy participants were exposed to the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) on two consecutive days. We collected saliva for cortisol measurements at baseline and at 1, 10, 30, 60 and 120min post-TSST, and blood for plasma IL-6 measurements at baseline and 30 and 120min post-TSST. RESULTS: Stress exposure induced significant increases of cortisol and IL-6 on both days (cortisol: F=38, p<0.001; IL-6: F=90.8; p<0.001), and repeated exposure was related with cortisol habituation (F=8.2; p<0.001) and IL-6 sensitization (F=5.2; p=0.022). BMI and body fat were related with higher cortisol responses to repeated stress (BMI: beta=0.34; p=0.014; body fat: beta=0.29; p=0.045), and with higher IL-6 responses to repeated stress (BMI: beta=0.27, p=0.044; body fat: beta=0.37; p=0.006). CONCLUSIONS: Taken together, individuals with higher measures of adiposity showed less efficient HPA axis habituation as well as sensitization of IL-6 responses to repeated acute stress. These findings point to maladaptive stress response patterns in overweight humans, which, through exposure to higher levels of inflammatory mediators, might partially explain diseases related with overweight and/or obesity.

Post-stress rumination predicts HPA axis responses to repeated acute stress.

Failure of the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis to habituate to repeated stress exposure is related with adverse health outcomes, but our knowledge of predictors of non-habituation is limited. Rumination, defined as repetitive and unwanted past-centered negative thinking, is related with exaggerated HPA axis stress responses and poor health outcomes. The aim of this study was to test whether post-stress rumination was related with non-habituation of cortisol to repeated stress exposure. Twenty-seven participants (n=13 females) were exposed to the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) twice on consecutive afternoons. Post-stress rumination was measured after the first TSST, and HPA axis responses were assessed by measuring salivary cortisol 1 min before, and 1, 10, 20, 60, and 120 min after both TSSTs. Stress exposure induced HPA axis activation on both days, and this activation showed habituation indicated by lower responses to the second TSST (F=3.7, p=0.015). Post-stress rumination after the first TSST was associated with greater cortisol reactivity after the initial stress test (r=0.45, p<0.05) and with increased cortisol responses to the second TSST (r=0.51, p<0.01), indicating non-habituation, independently of age, sex, depressive symptoms, perceived life stress, and trait rumination. In summary, results showed that rumination after stress predicted non-habituation of HPA axis responses. This finding implicates rumination as one possible mechanism mediating maladaptive stress response patterns, and it might also offer a pathway through which rumination might lead to negative health outcomes.

Self-compassion as a predictor of interleukin-6 response to acute psychosocial stress.

We examined the hypothesis that self-compassion is associated with lower levels of stress-induced inflammation. On two consecutive days, plasma concentrations of interleukin-6 (IL-6) were assessed at baseline and at 30 and 120 min following exposure to a standardized laboratory stressor in a sample of 41 healthy young adults. Participants who were higher in self-compassion exhibited significantly lower day 1 IL-6 responses, even when controlling for self-esteem, depressive symptoms, demographic factors, and distress. Self-compassion was not related to day 2 IL-6 response but was inversely related to day 2 baseline IL-6 levels, and to increase in baseline IL-6 from day 1 to day 2. These findings suggest that self-compassion may serve as a protective factor against stress-induced inflammation and inflammation-related disease.

Self-compassion increases self-improvement motivation.

Can treating oneself with compassion after making a mistake increase self-improvement motivation? In four experiments, the authors examined the hypothesis that self-compassion motivates people to improve personal weaknesses, moral transgressions, and test performance. Participants in a self-compassion condition, compared to a self-esteem control condition and either no intervention or a positive distraction control condition, expressed greater incremental beliefs about a personal weakness (Experiment 1); reported greater motivation to make amends and avoid repeating a recent moral transgression (Experiment 2); spent more time studying for a difficult test following an initial failure (Experiment 3); exhibited a preference for upward social comparison after reflecting on a personal weakness (Experiment 4); and reported greater motivation to change the weakness (Experiment 4). These findings suggest that, somewhat paradoxically, taking an accepting approach to personal failure may make people more motivated to improve themselves.

Interpersonal goals and change in anxiety and dysphoria in first-semester college students.

Two longitudinal studies examined the associations between interpersonal goals (i.e., self-image and compassionate goals) and anxiety and dysphoria (i.e., distress). In Study 1, 199 college freshmen (122 women, 77 men) completed 12 surveys over 12 weeks. Compassionate goals predicted decreased distress, and self-image goals predicted increased distress from pretest to posttest when distress was assessed as anxiety, dysphoria, or a composite, and when the goals were worded as approach goals, avoidance goals, or a composite. In Study 2, 115 first-semester roommate pairs (86 female and 29 male pairs) completed 12 surveys over 12 weeks. Compassionate and self-image goals predicted distress in same-week, lagged-week, and pretest-to-posttest analyses; effects of compassionate goals remained significant when the authors controlled for several known risk factors. Having clear goals consistently explained the association between compassionate goals but not self-image goals and distress. Results supported a path model in which compassionate goals predict increased support given to roommates, which predicts decreased distress. Results also supported a reciprocal association; chronic distress predicted decreased compassionate and increased self-image goals from pretest to posttest, and weekly distress predicted decreased compassionate goals the subsequent week. The results suggest that compassionate goals contribute to decreased distress because they provide meaning and increase support given to others. Distress, in turn, predicts change in goals, creating the potential for upward and downward spirals of goals and distress.

Self-objectification and well-being in women's daily lives.

Laboratory experiments and surveys show that self-objectification increases body shame, disrupts attention, and negatively predicts well-being. Using experience sampling methodology, the authors investigated self-objectification in the daily lives of 49 female college students. Building on the predictions of objectification theory, they examined associations between internalizing an observer's perspective on the self and psychological well-being, and examined the moderating roles of trait self-esteem and appearance-contingent self-worth. Within-person increases in self-objectification predicted decreased well-being, but this association was moderated by trait self-esteem and trait appearance-contingent self-worth; high self-esteem, highly appearance-contingent participants reported increased well-being when they self-objectified. Furthermore, perceived unattractiveness partially mediated the main effect and the three-way interaction: high self-esteem, highly contingent participants experienced smaller drops in well-being when they self-objectified, in part because they felt less unattractive. These results suggest that in daily life, some women receive a boost from self-objectification, although most women experience decreases in well-being when self-objectifying.