Self-compassion and social stress: Links with subjective stress and cortisol responses

ABSTRACT The present study investigated links between self-compassion and responses to social stress. Participants (N = 102) were randomly assigned to a self-compassion training or a comparison condition and engaged in the Trier Social Stress Test for Groups (TSST-G). Measures of trait self-compassion, subjective perceptions of stress, and salivary cortisol were collected. Participants with higher trait self-compassion had significantly lower subjective and cortisol responses to stress during the TSST-G than did participants with lower trait self-compassion. Participants in the self-compassion training condition did not have significantly lower responses to stress. Results suggest that trait self-compassion is linked with subjective and physiological responses to a social-evaluative stressor. Implications for trait self-compassion and self-compassion training on subjective and physiological responses to stress are discussed.