Post-event Processing Predicts Impaired Cortisol Recovery Following Social Stressor: The Moderating Role of Social Anxiety

Abstract

There is growing evidence that individuals with social anxiety show impaired cortisol recovery after experiencing social evaluative stressors. Yet, little is known regarding the cognitive processes underlying such impaired cortisol recovery. The present study examined the effect of post-event processing (PEP), referred to as repetitive thinking about social situations, on cortisol recovery following a social stressor. Forty-two non-clinical university students (23 women, 19 men, mean age = 22.0 ± 2.0 years) completed the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST), followed by a thought sampling procedure which assessed the frequency of PEP reflecting the TSST. A growth curve model showed PEP and social anxiety interactively predicted cortisol recovery. In particular, PEP predicted impaired cortisol recovery in those with low levels of social anxiety but not in those with high levels of social anxiety, which contradicted the initial hypothesis. These findings suggest that PEP is differentially associated with cortisol recovery depending on levels of social anxiety. The possible mechanisms underlying these findings were discussed in terms of protective inhibition framework.

The influence of time pressure on translation trainees’ performance: Testing the relationship between self-esteem, salivary cortisol and subjective stress response

“…In this sense, leaving text untranslated appears as one of the most immediate and rapid strategies. The higher post-task cortisol levels of those who performed better on pragmatic accuracy in Text 3 could be related to their levels of trait anxiety, a result that aligns with evidence suggesting that higher trait anxiety may be associated with impaired cortisol recovery in university students [ 67 ]. Considering that higher levels of trait anxiety were associated with better pragmatic accuracy under no time restrictions (Text 1), it is possible that those who performed better in Text 3 had higher levels of trait anxiety, which could have kept their cortisol levels higher during post-event processing.…”

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“…A slower recovery rate in autonomic and endocrine measures was associated with negative emotional states, such as worry (25)(26)(27) and impaired health in the long term (28). In line with this, more recent research suggests that poststress cognitions can influence stress recovery (29,30). This leads us to hypothesize that couples who express more intimacy behavior after stress would recover more quickly from stress.…”

Social anxiety disorder and childhood trauma in the context of anxiety (behavioural inhibition), impulsivity (behavioural activation) and quality of life

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