The effects of brief mindfulness induction and psychological stress manipulation on perceived stress

Abstract

The effects of a brief mindfulness induction and psychological stress manipulation on perceived stress were studied using a sample of 51 Laurentian University Undergraduate Psychology students. Participants were subjected to either to a mindfulness manipulation condition (a focused attention task – an analogy of mindfulness induction – or a free mind wandering task), followed by a stress manipulation condition (either the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) or an activity-matched placebo (TSSTp). Trait mindfulness (covariate), state mindfulness (manipulation check), perceived stress (manipulation check/dependant variable), and mood measures (dependant variable) were administered. Both mindfulness induction and stress induction manipulation checks were significant, indicating that participants understood the instructions, and the manipulations provided significant measured changes between groups. The stress manipulation check was significant in the expected direction, such that those in the stress experimental group rated as more stressed than the control group; however, the mood induction was significant opposite to expectations, such that the mind-wandering condition elicited significantly higher state mindfulness scores than the focused-breathing condition. There was no significant main effect of mindfulness on perceived stress scores, and contrary to the main hypothesis, there was no significant interaction between mindfulness condition and stress condition on perceived stress scores. Results of the mindfulness manipulation check suggest that the brief mindfulness manipulation utilized was not sufficient enough to produce measurable differences in mindfulness scores; however, the unexpected significance of the control group scores, coupled with a significant negative correlation between the trait and state mindfulness measures, may reflect discrepancies between the two measures of mindfulness and ultimately a difference between schools of mindfulness, or it may reflect an artifact of the methodology used. The lack of significant results concerning mindfulness and perceived stress scores suggest that either 1) a brief 15-minute implementation of mindfulness may not be sufficient enough to buffer against immediate future stress, or 2) there were issues/confounding variables with the methodology used. There were no significant results concerning the mood measures. Results and future research are discussed.