Summary
Objective: To test whether a brief mindfulness meditation training intervention buffers selfreported
psychological and neuroendocrine responses to the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) in
young adult volunteers. A second objective evaluates whether pre-existing levels of dispositional
mindfulness moderate the effects of brief mindfulness meditation training on stress reactivity.
Methods: Sixty-six (N = 66) participants were randomly assigned to either a brief 3-day (25-min
per day) mindfulness meditation training or an analytic cognitive training control program. All
participants completed a standardized laboratory social-evaluative stress challenge task (the
TSST) following the third mindfulness meditation or cognitive training session. Measures of
psychological (stress perceptions) and biological (salivary cortisol, blood pressure) stress reactivity
were collected during the social evaluative stress-challenge session.
Results: Brief mindfulness meditation training reduced self-reported psychological stress reactivity
but increased salivary cortisol reactivity to the TSST, relative to the cognitive training
comparison program. Participants who were low in pre-existing levels of dispositional mindfulness
and then received mindfulness meditation training had the greatest cortisol reactivity to the
TSST. No significant main or interactive effects were observed for systolic or diastolic blood
pressure reactivity to the TSST.
Abbreviations: