Brief Mindfulness Training Influences Daily Life Stress Among Emerging Adults Exposed to Childhood Trauma: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Childhood trauma is thought to program biological adaptations to stress that confer lifelong health risk. Mindfulness interventions have improved mental health among adults exposed to childhood trauma, but whether they can offset physical health risk is unknown. This trial evaluated effects of mindfulness and coping interventions on daily life stress processes in this population.

Eighty-one emerging adults who recalled physical, emotional, or sexual abuse in childhood were randomly assigned to a two-week remote mindfulness or coping comparison intervention. They provided daily life stress (momentary and day-level perceived stress and stressful events) and heart rate data for one week at pre-intervention, post-intervention, and one-month follow-up. Multilevel models tested for time × condition effects.

Across conditions, participants reported fewer stressful events over time (ps<.001), with larger effects following mindfulness training. Mindfulness participants reported higher stress perceptions from pre- to post-intervention relative to coping (momentary: d=.26, P=.002; daily: d=.44, P=.005), effects that were weaker at follow-up (momentary: d=.20, P=.015; daily: d=.19, P=.23). Increases in perceived stress following mindfulness training were more pronounced at higher levels of childhood abuse severity. In contrast, mindfulness participants showed relatively lower heart rate during moments of stress compared to coping participants from pre- to post-intervention (d=.62, P=.004).

Brief mindfulness training alters stress processes among adults who recall childhood trauma, reducing stressful events and physiological reactivity while intensifying stress perceptions. Results suggest the possibility that brief mindfulness training increases awareness and reduces emotional avoidance of stress experience. Further work is warranted to examine mindfulness intervention effects on stress-related health trajectories in trauma-exposed populations.