Writing Projects: Lessening Undergraduates' Unique Suicidal Bereavement
Abstract
To assess if writing projects lessen undergraduates' grief following a loved one's suicide, 40 students whose loved one died by suicide in the past 2 years wrote on four occasions over 2 weeks about profound topics (e.g., events and emotions surrounding the death) or trivial topics (e.g., description of the previous meal). All participants completed pre‐ and posttest measures of grief and self‐reported health visits, and 75% completed the same measures at 6‐week mailed follow‐up. As expected, individuals in the profound condition reported less grief associated with suicide at follow‐up than those in the trivial condition. However, the trivial and profound groups were not significantly different in general grief or health visits. Writing about grief associated with the suicide of a loved one appeared to reduce suicidal grief associated with this event. However, this benefit did not extend to general grief or physical health.
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It seems beneficial to deliver interventions over time (e.g., over 8-10 weeks) or to use manuals or guidelines for the intervention.
“Also, it seems beneficial to deliver interventions over time (e.g., over 8–10 weeks) (Farberow, 1992; Pfeffer et al., 2002) or to use manuals or guidelines for the intervention (Kovac and Range, 2000; Pfeffer et al., 2002; Supiano et al., 2017; Zisook et al., 2018).”
From Suicide Postvention Service Models and Guidelines 2014–2019: A Systematic Review (2019) · cites this paper as Kovac and Range, 2000
A study comparing the effects of a death-related writing task intervention with a neutral writing task control condition yielded a significant reduction in grief levels in both groups, but more in the intervention group than in the control group.
“A study comparing the effects of a death-related writing task intervention with a neutral writing task control condition yielded a significant reduction in grief levels in both groups, but more in the intervention group than in the control group (Kovac and Range, 2000).”
From Suicide Postvention Service Models and Guidelines 2014–2019: A Systematic Review (2019) · cites this paper as Kovac and Range, 2000
Six studies included an active control group or a treatment-as-usual control condition.
“Six studies included an active control group [33–35, 37, 40] or a treatment-as-usual control condition [41, 42].”
Eight of the 11 studies were conducted in the USA.
“Eight studies were conducted in the USA [33–40].”
Several studies involved manualised interventions.
“Several studies involved manualised interventions [37, 38, 40–42].”
The overall study quality was weak: nine studies received a total rating of 'weak'; the other two were rated 'moderate'.
“The overall study quality was weak: nine studies received a total rating of ‘weak’; the other two [37, 38] were rated ‘moderate’.”
A study comparing a death-related writing task intervention with a control condition involving trivial writing tasks yielded mixed findings: both groups experienced a significant reduction in grief levels, but the suicide-related grief aspects were more reduced in the intervention group than in the control group.
“A study comparing the effects of a death-related writing task intervention with a control condition involving trivial writing tasks yielded mixed findings [37]. Both groups experienced a significant reduction in grief levels, but the suicide-related grief aspects were more reduced in the intervention group than in the control group [37].”
Other intervention studies reporting on grief reactions in general indicated some inconsistent positive results regarding broadly defined self-reported grief feelings, grief symptoms measured by the Grief Experience Inventory, and the Grief Recovery Questions.
“Similarly, other intervention studies reporting on grief reactions in general indicated some inconsistent positive results regarding broadly defined self-reported grief feelings [36], grief symptoms measured by the Grief Experience Inventory [34, 35, 47], and the Grief Recovery Questions [37, 57].”
A common factor in the effective studies comparing different interventions is the finding that grief-specific interventions may yield stronger effects on grief outcomes compared to interventions targeting other outcomes, though other studies failed to find such an effect.
“A common factor in the effective studies comparing different interventions (involving an active control group) is the finding that grief-specific interventions may yield stronger effects on grief outcomes compared to interventions targeting other outcomes [34, 37], though other studies failed to find such an effect [35].”
The use of manuals or guidelines may help guiding the intervention.
“The use of manuals or guidelines may help guiding the intervention [37, 38, 40–42].”
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- Authors
- Kovac, S. H., & Range, L. M.
- Affiliations
- University of Southern Mississippi (US)
- Corresponding author
- Kovac, Stacey H.
- Range, Lillian M.
- Venue
- Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2000-03
- Volume
- 30
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 50-60
- ISSN
- 0363-0234 (ISSN-L)
- 1943-278X
- OpenAlex
- W1548082434
- Cited by
- 83
- References
- 26
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 1 · 2023: 4 · 2022: 2 · 2021: 1 · 2020: 4 · 2019: 8 · 2018: 6 · 2017: 2 · 2016: 3 · 2015: 3 · 2014: 2 · 2013: 2 · 2012: 3
- FWCI
- 2.23
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Aquila Digital Community (University of Southern Mississippi) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Grief, Bereavement, and Mental Health
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Mental Health via Writing
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Suicide and Self-Harm Studies
- Keywords
- grief, writing intervention, expressive writing, undergraduate students, health visits, physical health
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Adult, Attitude to Death, Bereavement, Female, Follow-Up Studies, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Surveys and Questionnaires, Social Support, Students, Suicide, Verbal Behavior
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