Decreasing Stress With Writing Exercises
Andres Salgado and Amy Roy
- Abstract
- A large body of research has demonstrated that writing interventions, specifically expressive writing, can help students cope with anxiety and stress and positively impact academic performance. The current research study adapted an expressive writing exercise from Rozek et al. (2019) to be used with students enrolled in Introduction to Biology courses at Fordham University. In light of previous findings, we hypothesized that students in the expressive writing intervention would show fewer depressive symptoms, lower stress levels, less test anxiety, and better exam grades than students in a control condition. Moreover, we predicted that differences between students in the expressive writing intervention and those in the control condition would be greater for underrepresented minority (URM) students than others. Thirty-nine students in Introduction to Biology agreed to participate in the study. Students were randomly assigned to either the expressive writing or control condition. Participants completed a brief battery of questionnaires on Qualtrics assessing stress, test anxiety, and depressive symptoms at 3 time points (beginning, middle, and end of the fall semester). No significant effects of the expressive writing intervention were demonstrated for measures of stress, test anxiety, or depression. Unexpectedly, students in the expressive writing intervention scored lower than students in the control group on midterm and final exams. Results did support increased stress, anxiety, and depressive symptoms in URM students. Although primary study hypotheses were not supported, the current study can serve as a basis for future work aiming to use expressive writing to reduce student stress and improve academic performance.
- Presented by
- Andres Salgado
- Institution
- Fordham University, Department of Psychology
