The DOI matches its Crossref record; 49 of the 49 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Self-compassion training modulates alpha-amylase, heart rate variability, and subjective responses to social evaluative threat in women
Open accessAbstract
A growing body of research has revealed that social evaluative stressors trigger biological and psychological responses that in chronic forms have been linked to aging and disease. Recent research suggests that self-compassion may protect the self from typical defensive responses to evaluation. We investigated whether brief training in self-compassion moderated biopsychological responses to the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) in women. Compared to attention (placebo) and no-training control conditions, brief self-compassion training diminished sympathetic (salivary alpha-amylase), cardiac parasympathetic, and subjective anxiety responses, though not HPA-axis (salivary cortisol) responses to the TSST. Self-compassion training also led to greater self-compassion under threat relative to the control groups. In that social stress pervades modern life, self-compassion represents a promising approach to diminishing its potentially negative psychological and biological effects.
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“Only two studies assessed confounding factors, such as demand characteristics34,35, and only five reported the method of randomization36–40.”
From The limited prosocial effects of meditation: A systematic review and meta-analysis (2018) · cites this paper as [35]
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“Also, these studies used as the major outcome measure a scale of Self-Compassion that assessed the same emotions that were elicited during the intervention35,37,38,47.”
From The limited prosocial effects of meditation: A systematic review and meta-analysis (2018) · cites this paper as [35]
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“Earlier studies have failed to find any effects of contemplative mental training on HF-HRV at rest52–54.”
From Voluntary upregulation of heart rate variability through biofeedback is improved by mental contemplative training (2019) · cites this paper as [52]
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“This is in line with earlier studies investigating the effects of contemplative mental training on HF-HRV52–54.”
From Voluntary upregulation of heart rate variability through biofeedback is improved by mental contemplative training (2019) · cites this paper as [52]
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“Recent studies on compassion using alternate forms of measurement, for example physiological measures such as heart-rate variability, provide important additional data to this debate [124–129].”
From Validation of the compassionate engagement and action scales, compassion scale, and Sussex-Oxford compassion scales in a French-Canadian sample (2024) · cites this paper as [124]
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“After brief self-compassionate training, the self-compassion group showed greater resilience during a social threat than the other two groups [29].”
From Potential therapeutic effects of meditation for treating affective dysregulation (2014) · cites this paper as [29]
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“A further eight studies used written or recorded meditation instructions13,35,39,42–46.”
From The limited prosocial effects of meditation: A systematic review and meta-analysis (2018) · cites this paper as [35]
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“Besides, compassion cultivation has been proved to buffer against the deleterious effects of psychosocial stressors by reducing the reactivity of the autonomic stress response (Arch et al., 2014; Breines et al., 2014), and may be of particular interest during the current COVID-19 pandemic (Khoury, 2020).”
From Feasibility of a Brief Online Mindfulness and Compassion-Based Intervention to Promote Mental Health Among University Students During the COVID-19 Pandemic (2021) · cites this paper as Arch et al., 2014
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Metadata
- Authors
- Arch, J. J., Brown, K. W., Dean, D. J., Landy, L. N., Brown, K. D., & Laudenslager, M. L.
- Affiliations
- University of Colorado Boulder (US)
- Virginia Commonwealth University (US)
- University of Colorado Anschutz (US)
- Corresponding author
- Arch, Joanna J.
- Venue
- Psychoneuroendocrinology
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2014-04
- Volume
- 42
- Pages
- 49-58
- ISSN
- 0306-4530 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC3985278
- OpenAlex
- W2116825219
- Semantic Scholar
- 0da0a4172d28968f552964c123cc629a2a0dd02f
- Cited by
- 290
- References
- 49
- Citations by year
- 2026: 13 · 2025: 19 · 2024: 21 · 2023: 30 · 2022: 30 · 2021: 24 · 2020: 37 · 2019: 22 · 2018: 30 · 2017: 28 · 2016: 20 · 2015: 10 · 2014: 6
- FWCI
- 25.18
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Psychoneuroendocrinology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- National Cancer Institute (CA126971, R01CA126971)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Mindfulness and Compassion Interventions
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Behavioral Neuroscience › Stress Responses and Cortisol
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Cardiology and Cardiovascular Medicine › Heart Rate Variability and Autonomic Control
- Keywords
- self-compassion training, social-evaluative threat, Trier Social Stress Test, salivary amylase, heart rate variability, sympathetic nervous system, parasympathetic nervous system, anxiety, salivary cortisol, hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, women, stress response
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Anxiety, Attention, Empathy, Female, Heart Rate, Humans, Hypothalamo-Hypophyseal System, Pituitary-Adrenal System, Saliva, Stress, Psychological, Meditation, Salivary alpha-Amylases, Young Adult
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