Efficacy of positive expressive writing in reducing depression and social anxiety symptoms among schoolchildren during COVID-19: A randomized controlled trial.

Publication date: Nov 15, 2024

The COVID-19 pandemic harmed children’s mental health, and limited therapy access exacerbates the issue. We studied positive expressive writing (EW) as a psychological intervention for teachers to reduce depression and social anxiety symptoms among schoolchildren. Altogether, 165 Chinese schoolchildren aged 10-15 were randomly assigned to positive EW, memory EW, or control group. EW groups wrote for 10 minutes weekly for 7 weeks about people and things they felt grateful for (positive EW) or memorable in the past week. The control group continued with regular weekly class meetings. All groups measured depression and social anxiety before and after the intervention. Positive EW significantly reduced depression and social anxiety symptoms compared to the control condition (both Cohen’s d = -0. 45) and reduced social anxiety symptoms compared to memory EW (Cohen’s d = -0. 32). Therefore, teachers can implement positive EW to support schoolchildren’s mental health recovery during and after disasters.

Concepts Keywords
10minutes depression
Chinese positive expressive writing
Pandemic post-pandemic recovery
Schoolchildren schoolchildren
Therapy social anxiety

Semantics

Type Source Name
disease MESH depression
disease MESH social anxiety
disease MESH COVID-19
disease IDO intervention

Original Article

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