More grateful, less stressed? – Neuroscience News
Abstract: A state of gratitude lowers the systolic blood pressure response across stress testing experiences, demonstrating that gratitude has a unique buffering effect against psychological stress responses and recovery from it.
Source: BIAL Foundation
Researchers from the University of Ireland conducted a study with 68 adults and found that gratitude has a unique stress dampening effect on responses to and recovery from acute psychological stress, which may contribute to improved cardiovascular health.
Knowing that stress affects human beings and affects their health and well-being, that is, it causes high blood pressure and increases cardiovascular morbidity and coronary heart disease, it is important to know our reactions to stress and find out if there are factors that can play a key role in alleviating stress.
In the article, “Gratitude, Affect Balance, and Stress Buffering: A Growth Curve Examination of Cardiovascular Responses to a Laboratory Stress Task,” published in January in Journal of PsychophysiologyBrian Leavy, Brenda H. O’Connell, and Deirdre O’Shea suggest that although previous research suggests that gratitude and affect balance play a key role in stress relief, little is known to date about the impact of these variables on cardiovascular recovery from acute psychological stress.
This was the focus of a study by researchers from the universities of Maynooth and Limerick in Ireland, who also sought to discover whether the balance of affect affects the relationship between gratitude and cardiovascular responses to acute psychological stress.
68 undergraduate students (24 men and 44 women), aged 18 to 57, participated in the research conducted at Maynooth University in Ireland. This study used a within-subjects experimental design with laboratory tasks in which participants were induced with stress and then measured cardiovascular reactivity and recovery in response.
The results showed that the state of gratitude predicted lower systolic blood pressure responses during the stress test period, implying that the state of gratitude has a unique stress-buffering effect on responses to and recovery from acute psychological stress. Affect balance was also found to enhance the effects of state gratitude.
These findings have clinical utility as there are several low-cost gratitude interventions that may contribute to well-being (Wood et al., 2010). For example, previous research has shown that heart patients who use gratitude journals have better cardiovascular outcomes than those who do not (Redwine et al., 2016).
Combined with the results of this study and previous work, gratitude may therefore represent a useful point of intervention to improve our cardiovascular health.
About this stress research news
Author: Press office
Source: BIAL Foundation
Contact: Press office – BIAL Foundation
Picture: The image is in the public domain
Original research: Closed access.
“Gratitude, affect balance, and the stress buffer: A growth curve examination of cardiovascular responses to a laboratory stress task” by Brian Leavy et al. Journal of Psychophysiology
See also
Abstract
Gratitude, affect balance, and the stress buffer: A growth curve examination of cardiovascular responses to a laboratory stress task
Previous research has shown that gratitude and affect balance play a key role in reducing stress. However, to date there is limited research on the impact of gratitude and affect balance on cardiovascular recovery from acute psychological stress, and whether affect balance moderates the relationship between gratitude and cardiovascular responses to acute psychological stress.
In this study, 68 adults completed measures of gratitude, positive and negative affect, and completed a laboratory cardiovascular stress testing protocol. This included a 20-minute acclimation period, a 10-minute baseline, a 6-minute arithmetic stress task, and an 8-minute recovery period.
Mixed-effects growth curve models were fit, and results indicated that gratitude state predicted lower systolic blood pressure responses during the stress testing period. Affect balance was found to moderate the association between feelings of gratitude and the diastolic blood pressure response to stress, amplifying the effects of feelings of gratitude.
These findings suggest that expressed gratitude has a unique stress dampening effect on responses to and recovery from acute psychological stress.
title_words_as_hashtags]