Author(s): Samantha Brooks
Mentor(s):
Institution SUU
As alternative therapies rise in popularity, understanding the ways they impact individuals is beneficial. One form of alternative therapy that is being researched is writing therapy and its benefits (Dawson et al. 2021, Ruwaard & Lange 2016). This research has highlighted the ways in which writing therapies have been beneficial for individuals struggling with PTSD. However, a more relative concern of college students includes stress levels rather than higher levels of anxiety and PTSD. Much of the research on writing therapy has focused on PTSD but has failed to highlight the benefits of writing with individuals who experience generalized stress and worry. The goal of this study is to look at the factor of stress and to analyze whether writing about stressors is beneficial to college students. The current study is looking at the ways that writing impacts an individual’s stress levels. For this study participants completed a PANAS scale before being exposed to one of two conditions. Participants in the control group watched a video which discussed the benefits of writing, while those in the experiment group were asked to spend 5 minutes writing on paper about their stressor. After this each group completed the PANAS scale a second time. Participants then completed the Coping Self-Efficacy scale. An analysis of data will look at the before and after PANAS scales and look to see if negative emotions relating to stress will decrease after spending time writing. It will also look at whether those in the experimental group indicate higher levels of self-efficacy than those in the control group. While data for this study has yet to be analyzed, it is predicted that individuals who are asked to write about their stress will have lower levels of stress, and higher self-efficacy scores than individuals who only watched a video.