IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/qualqt/v48y2014i6p2939-2962.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Targeting writing interventions to emotional processing level: a factorial experimental design

Author

Listed:
  • Cheryl Maddalena
  • Ruth Saxey-Reese
  • Elizabeth Barnes

Abstract

Emotional processing (EP) from the emotional approach coping measure has been shown to moderate the effect of writing interventions. This study targeted writing interventions to EP level, with low EP participants receiving a best possible self (BPS) script and high EP participants receiving an emotional expression (EMO) script, versus a control (CTL) writing script. A factorial experimental design was used to balance the potential factors gender, spacing of interventions, and whether participants were instructed to keep or give their writing samples to the administrator. Post-test measures were taken 1 month after completion of writing. Sixty-four undergraduates (66 % female) participated. Those with high EP ( $$\hbox {EP}\,\ge \,3$$ EP ≥ 3 ) were assigned EMO or CTL; those with low EP ( $$\hbox {EP}\,\le \,3$$ EP ≤ 3 ) were assigned BPS or CTL. These targeted interventions had significantly better results than CTL for change in last month’s need based healthcare visits ( $$p=.0058$$ p = . 0058 ) and health symptoms ( $$p=.0107$$ p = . 0107 ). Analysis of health symptoms showed that only cold/flu ( $$p=.0369$$ p = . 0369 ), headaches ( $$p=.0393$$ p = . 0393 ), sinus ( $$p=.0411$$ p = . 0411 ), and diarrhea ( $$p=.0089$$ p = . 0089 ) showed a significant change. Data modeling suggests that gender, EP, intervention, and spacing were active factors contributing to change in health, and that interactions between them should also be taken into account. Analysis of the CTL intervention showed a marked worsening of health for low EP participants but a mild or negligible effect on health for high EP. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2014

Suggested Citation

  • Cheryl Maddalena & Ruth Saxey-Reese & Elizabeth Barnes, 2014. "Targeting writing interventions to emotional processing level: a factorial experimental design," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 48(6), pages 2939-2962, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:qualqt:v:48:y:2014:i:6:p:2939-2962
    DOI: 10.1007/s11135-013-9933-2
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/s11135-013-9933-2
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11135-013-9933-2?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Alba Carrillo & María Rubio-Aparicio & Guadalupe Molinari & Ángel Enrique & Julio Sánchez-Meca & Rosa M Baños, 2019. "Effects of the Best Possible Self intervention: A systematic review and meta-analysis," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(9), pages 1-23, September.
    2. Paula M Loveday & Geoff P Lovell & Christian M Jones, 2018. "The Best Possible Selves Intervention: A Review of the Literature to Evaluate Efficacy and Guide Future Research," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 19(2), pages 607-628, February.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:qualqt:v:48:y:2014:i:6:p:2939-2962. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.