Effects of stress management through written emotional disclosure on secondary school students

Abstract

Secondary school students experience high level of stress related to academic issues, e.g. college entrance exam, along side with interpersonal relationship. In this study, a modification of a research on written emotional on college student was carried out on secondary school students to test whether writing about stressful events (1) decreases perceived stress level, (2) improves academic engagement, and (3) improves interpersonal relationship. Forty-six participants were randomized to write for 4 days about either stressful experiences (disclosure group) or time management (control group). Students rated their perceived stress level, academic engagement and interpersonal relationship before the treatment for baseline evaluation, and in the subsequent month for comparison. Results showed that the perceived effectiveness of the emotional disclosure intervention is notably greater in helping the participants to manage stress than the control condition of writing for time management. A significant time effect was shown in perceived stress level, suggesting that participants in both time management and written emotional disclosure conditions showed lowering of perceived stress level over time. However, there was no significant treatment effect for any of the three areas of concern. This study also provides an important finding showing that interpersonal relationship moderated treatment effect; implying that written emotional disclosure is an effective intervention for students who have poor interpersonal relationship.