For better or worse? Stress inoculation effects for implicit but not explicit anxiety

Severe early life stress (ELS) is associated with negative outcomes. It is not clear, however, what impact moderate ELS has. A growing stress inoculation literature suggests that moderate (vs. low or high) ELS is associated with diminished behavioral and physiological anxiety responses. At the same time, studies of trait anxiety suggest that moderate (vs. low) ELS is associated with greater self-reported anxiety. This study tested the hypothesis that stress inoculation effects are evident for implicit (nonconscious) but not explicit (conscious) aspects of anxiety.

Ninety-seven healthy women were assessed for ELS and explicit anxiety using questionnaires and assessed for implicit anxiety using a version of the Implicit Association Test.

Results indicated a quadratic relation between ELS and implicit anxiety, such that moderate ELS was associated with lower implicit anxiety levels than low or high ELS. By contrast, the relation between ELS and explicit anxiety was linear.

These findings support the stress inoculation hypothesis and suggest that stress inoculation applies for implicit but not explicit aspects of anxiety.