CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 39Mental Health via WritingDigital Mental Health InterventionsPsychological Well-being and Life Satisfaction

Online writing about positive life experiences reduces depression and perceived stress reactivity in socially inhibited individuals

Open access
Allen, Sarah F., Wetherell, Mark A., Smith, Michael A·2020·Psychiatry Research
DOI 10.1016/j.psychres.2019.112697

Published version of a preprint

Open this paper in CoChat — free account

Abstract

Therapeutic writing can enhance psychological and physical health. Recent studies have suggested that these kinds of interventions can be effective when delivered online. The present study investigated whether positive emotional writing online can influence psychological and physical health in individuals reporting high levels of negative affectivity, who are most likely to benefit from psychological intervention (N = 72, M age = 28.5, SD age = 8.7), and further, to investigate the potential moderating role of social inhibition. Participants completed self-report measures of physical symptoms, perceived stress, perceived stress reactivity, depression and generalised anxiety, before completing either i) positive emotional writing, or ii) a non-emotive control writing task on an online portal, for 20 min per day over three consecutive days. State anxiety was measured immediately after each writing session, and self-report questionnaires were again administered four weeks post-writing. Socially inhibited individuals exhibited significant reductions in depression and perceived stress reactivity four weeks following positive emotional writing, relative to writing about a neutral topic. The present study supports the efficacy of online therapeutic writing in individuals who, due to their socially inhibited nature, are most likely to benefit from online interventions which avoid interaction with a therapist or other clients.

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1016/j.psychres.2019.112697

Cites

46 of 46 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Recomputing p-values needs the paper’s full text.

Claims the paper makes

The text we found for this paper looks like another document, so its claims and self-check weren’t run. The registry and citation checks still apply.

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The text we found for this paper looks like another document, so the self-check wasn’t run.

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Related

Authors
Allen, S. F., Wetherell, M. A., & Smith, M. A.
Affiliations
  • Northumbria University (GB)
  • The University of Western Australia (AU)
Corresponding author
Smith, Michael A
ORCID
Venue
Psychiatry Research
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
2020-02
Volume
284
Pages
112697
ISSN
0165-1781 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1016/j.psychres.2019.112697
OpenAlex
W2990734855
Cited by
39
References
45
Citations by year
2026: 4 · 2025: 9 · 2024: 7 · 2023: 7 · 2022: 5 · 2021: 6 · 2020: 1
FWCI
3.77
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • Psychiatry Research (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Northumbria Research Link (Northumbria University) (acceptedVersion)
  • TeesRep (Teesside University) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
  • UWA Profiles and Research Repository (UWA) (submittedVersion)
  • Teesside University Research Portal (Teesside University) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
  • PsyArXiv (OSF Preprints) (submittedVersion)
  • PsyArXiv (OSF Preprints) (submittedVersion, public-domain)
Funders
Northumbria University
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Mental Health via Writing
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Applied Psychology › Digital Mental Health Interventions
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Psychological Well-being and Life Satisfaction
Keywords
social inhibition, depression, negative affectivity, state anxiety, generalized anxiety disorder, online intervention, somatic symptoms
MeSH terms
Internet-Based Intervention, Adolescent, Adult, Anxiety, Depression, Emotions, Female, Humans, Life Change Events, Male, Middle Aged, Negativism, Social Behavior, Stress, Psychological, Writing, Linear Models, Young Adult, Self Report

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review