POSTER PRESENTATION ABSTRACTS
Please note: All posters will be displayed in
Salons 10-12.
THURSDAY, 5:30-6:15 PM
Moskowitz JT, Epel ES.
Mind-body effects in the context of stress: Perception
of stress-related benefits, positive emotion, and diurnal cortisol slope.
Osher Center for Integrative Medicine at UCSF
moskj@ocim.ucsf.edu
PURPOSE: Previous mind-body research has demonstrated
that individuals who perceive positive consequences (i.e., find benefit)
in the wake of a stressful experience are at lower risk of subsequent
physical health problems. The purpose of the present study was to explore
the associations among benefit finding, daily positive emotion, and
stress as indicated by daily cortisol slope.
METHODS: Participants were 69 maternal caregivers.
Benefit finding was measured using the Posttraumatic Growth Inventory
(PTGI; Tedeschi & Calhoun, 1996), which assesses five types of positive
sequelae from the most traumatic event of the participant's adult life.
Participants then provided three saliva samples per day (at waking,
waking + 30 minutes, and bedtime) over the course of two days for assessment
of diurnal cortisol. They also reported their positive and negative
emotions at the time of the saliva collection. Cortisol slope was calculated
for each day as the change from waking to bedtime, then averaging the
slopes for the two sampling days. A steep negative daily slope for cortisol
is considered normative in healthy individuals.
RESULTS: Four of the five PTGI subscales were
positively associated with daily positive emotion but none was associated
with negative emotion. Cortisol slope was not significantly correlated
with any of the PTGI subscales, or positive or negative emotion. However,
the interactions of daily positive emotion and 3 of the PTGI subscales
were statistically significant such that higher scores on these subscales
predicted a steeper (more adaptive) daily cortisol slope for those women
who also had higher levels of daily positive emotion.
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