Evidence for differential associations of distinct trait mindfulness facets with acute and chronic stress.

Stress and stress-associated disease are considered the health epidemic of the 21st century. Interestingly, despite experiencing similar amounts of stress than those falling ill, some individuals are protected against the "wear and tear of daily life". Based on the notion that mindfulness training strengthens stress resilience, we explored whether facets of trait mindfulness, prior to training intervention, are linked to acute psychosocial stress reactivity and chronic stress load. To assess different mindfulness facets, over 130 participants completed the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ) and the Freiburg Mindfulness Inventory (FMI). For acute stress induction, a standardized psychosocial stress test was conducted. Subjective stress, sympathetic and parasympathetic activity, and levels of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis end hormone cortisol were assessed repeatedly. Additionally, levels of hair cortisol and cortisone as indices of the long-term physiological stress load were collected. We found differential associations of different facets of mindfulness with subjective stress, cortisol, and hair cortisone levels. Specifically, the trait mindfulness facets FMI "Acceptance" and the ability to put one's inner experience into words (FFMQ "Describing") were associated with lower acute subjective and cortisol stress reactivity. Contrarily, monitoring-related trait mindfulness facets (FFMQ "Acting with Awareness" and "Observing") were associated with higher acute cortisol and marginally higher long-term cortisone release. Our results suggest granularity of the mindfulness construct. In accordance with the "Monitor and Acceptance Theory", especially acceptance-related traits buffered against stress, while monitoring-related traits seemed to be maladaptive in the context of stress. The current results give valuable guidance for the conceptualization of mindfulness-based interventions geared towards stress reduction.

Compassion buffers the association between trauma exposure and PTSD symptom severity: Findings of a cross-sectional study.

To advance intervention science dedicated to improve refugees' mental health, a better understanding of factors of risk and resilience involved in the etiology and maintenance of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is needed. In the present study, we tested whether empathy and compassion, two trainable aspects of social cognition related to health, would modulate risk for PTSD after war-related trauma. Fifty-six refugees and 42 migrants from Arabic-speaking countries reported on their trauma experiences, PTSD symptoms, and perceived trait empathy and compassion. They further completed the EmpaToM, a naturalistic computer task measuring behavioral empathy and compassion. Moderation analyses revealed that behavioral, but not self-reported compassion was a significant moderator of the trauma-PTSD link. Trauma was more strongly related to PTSD symptoms when individuals had low (ß =.59, t = 4.27, p <.001) as compared to high levels of behavioral compassion. Neither self-reported nor behavioral empathy moderated the trauma-PTSD link (ß =.24, t = 1.57, p =.120). Findings indicate that the ability to go beyond the sharing of others' suffering and generate the positive feeling of compassion may support resilience in the context of trauma and subsequent development of PTSD. Hence, compassion may be a suitable target for prevention and intervention approaches reducing PTSD symptoms after trauma.

You look stressed: A pilot study on facial action unit activity in the context of psychosocial stress.

Quality and quantity of the human stress response are highly individual. Not only are there differences in terms of psychological and physiological stress reactivity, but also with regard to facial muscle stress reactivity. In a first correlative pilot study to decipher the signature of stress as it presents in the physiognomy of a stressed individual, we investigated how stress-induced muscle movement activity in the face is associated with stress marker activation during a standardized laboratory stress test. Female and male participants (N = 62) completed the Trier Social Stress Test and provided multiple measurements of salivary cortisol, subjective experience, heart rate, and high-frequency heart rate variability. In addition, participants were filmed during stress induction to derive the activation of 13 individual muscles or muscle groups, also termed action units (AU). Mean AU intensity and occurrence rates were measured using the opensource software OpenDBM. We found that facial AU activity correlated with different aspects of the psychosocial stress response. Higher stress-induced cortisol release was associated with more frequent upper eyelid raiser (AU05) and upper lip raiser (AU10) occurrences, while more lip corner pulling (AU12) went along with lower cortisol reactivity. More frequent eyelid tightener (AU07) occurrences were linked to higher subjective stress reactivity but decreased heart rate and HF-HRV reactivity. Last, women showed greater stress-induced smiling intensity and occurrence rates than men. We conclude that psychosocial stress reactivity is systematically linked to facial muscle activity, with distinct facial stress profiles emerging for different stress markers. From all the AUs studied, eyelid tightening (AU07) seems to provide the strongest potential for future attempts of diagnosing phases of acute stress via facial activity.