3. Mental Health in Emerging Adulthood
Emerging adulthood (age 18-25)
Uncertainty, exploration, profound
change
More serious mental illness in 2014
than previous years (2008-2013)
In particular, college students deal
with:
Homesickness
Adjusting to new environment
Pressure to succeed academically
(Center for Behavioral Health Statistics and Quality,
2015; Thurber & Walton, 2012; American College Health
Association, 2015; Arnett, 2000)
U.S. undergrad survey (N = 80,121)
13.2% clinically depressed
15.8% clinically anxious
9.8% considered suicide
5. Physiological health (Frattaroli, 2006)
Improved immune function
Reduced:
High blood pressure
Acne
Upper respiratory symptoms
Health center visits
Benefits of Expressive Writing
Mental health (Smyth, 1998)
Improved:
Affect
General temperament
Adjustment to college
Life satisfaction
Reduced:
Depression and sadness
Anxiety
Benefits sustained
months later!
6. When and for whom does EW work best?
EW works better for people with…
Higher levels of disclosure in writing (Pennebaker et al., 1988)
Tendency to suppress emotions (Gortner et al., 2006)
Alexithymia and splitting tendencies (Baikie & McIlwain, 2008)
Greater baseline ambivalence regarding emotional
expression (Lu & Stanton, 2010)
Higher mindfulness (Poon & Danoff-Burg, 2011)
7. Forgiveness and EW
Forgiveness…
Predicts life satisfaction (Macaskill,
2012)
Is correlated with
Physical health (r = .32)
Psychological health (r = .45)
(Davis et al., 2015)
EW aids forgiveness, perhaps
because it facilitates emotional
regulation and disinhibition.
(Landry et al., 2005; Stratton et al., 2008; Leach et al.,
2010; Crowley, 2014; Romero, 2008; Barclay &
Saldanha, 2015)
Is the capacity to forgive related to the mental
health benefits of EW?
8. Hypothesis: Expressive writing will lead to a
decrease in anxiety symptoms, which will be
moderated by participants’ capacity to forgive.
10. Participants
N = 90 (78 female, 12 male) first-year College of
Charleston students
Aged 17-22 years (M = 18.07, SD = 1.98)
Recruited through PSYC 103 requirement
Predominantly Caucasian (n = 67, 74.4%)
11. Procedure
Writing sessions 1, 2, & 3:
Among other health measures, participants completed:
Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI)
Heartland Forgiveness Scale (HFS)
Participants wrote according to randomly assigned
writing prompt for 20 mins/day on 3 consecutive days
1-month follow-ups:
Participants completed health measures
12. Expressive prompt
“For all three writing days of this experiment, your task is to write about
your very deepest thoughts and feelings about coming
to college. In your writing, try to let yourself go and write
continuously about your emotions and thoughts related to leaving
home, coming to college, and preparing for the future. You can
write about leaving your friends, family, or high school, or
about adjusting to a new social and academic world
here. You could also focus on your classes, your future, your parents’ or
your own expectations. The primary task, however, is for you to reflect
on your most basic thoughts and emotions about coming to college.
You have 20 minutes to complete the task.”
Writing instructions
Control prompt
“For all three writing days of
this experiment, your task is
to describe in writing any
particular object or event
as objectively and as
dispassionately as
you can, without
mentioning your emotions,
opinions, or beliefs. You
have 20 minutes to
complete the task.”
(Pennebaker & Beall, 1986; Pennebaker, 1997)
17. Conclusion
Implications
General decrease in anxiety possibly result of
freshmen adjusting to new environment with time
High forgiveness group: steady decline in symptoms
Low forgiveness group: more pronounced decline,
with rebound at 1-month follow-up
Looking forward
6-month follow-up findings
18. Limitations
Control group started with higher average BDI and BAI
scores
Lack of diversity: gender and race/ethnicity
Past findings more robust for physiological health
than mental health
Did not control for essay content
19. Acknowledgements
We would like to thank Hannah
Sebald, Kelly Venezia, and
Jacqueline Trumbull for their help
with this study.
21. American College Health Association.
(2015). American College Health
Association-National College Health
Assessment II: Undergraduate Student
Reference Group Executive Summary
Spring 2015. Hanover, MD.
Arnett, J. J. (2000). Emerging
adulthood: A theory of development
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twenties. American Psychologist, 55(5),
469-480.
Baikie, K. A., & McIlwain, D. (2008).
Who does expressive writing work for?
Examination of alexithymia, splitting,
and repressive coping style as
moderators of the expressive writing
paradigm. British Journal of Health
Psychology, 13, 61-66.
References
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