Measures of sCort and sAA were obtained from the unstimulated whole saliva samples collected during the 14-day measurement period. The participants were instructed to collect the samples as follows: first, they should rinse their mouth with water and then swallow all remaining saliva before collecting saliva for 2 min, which they should then transfer into SaliCap® tubes via a straw. They were also asked to refrain from eating, smoking, brushing their teeth, or drinking anything but water for 1 h prior to sample collection. Participants were asked to store samples in a freezer or a fridge as soon as possible at home. Upon returning to the laboratory, the samples were stored at -20°C at the Biochemical Laboratory of the Department of Psychology, University of Marburg, until analysis. sCort levels were measured using a commercially available enzyme-linked immunoassay (IBL, Hamburg, Germany). sAA activity was measured using a kinetic colorimetric test and reagents obtained from Roche (Fa. Roche Diagnostics, Mannheim, Germany). Inter- and intra-assay variance for both sCort and sAA was below 10%.