The Role of Affect Regulation and Self-presentation in the Expressive Writing Intervention

May 10, 2016 updated by: Justin Mattina, University of Toronto

Examining Potential Moderators and Mediators in the Expressive Writing Intervention: The Role of Affect Regulation and Self-presentation.

The purpose of the present study is twofold. First, we will attempt to examine the role that emotion regulation and self-presentation play as potential moderators in the expressive writing paradigm. We hypothesize that expressive writing participants who demonstrate greater abilities to regulate their emotions at baseline will improve more on our outcome measures. We also hypothesize that those expressive writing participants who demonstrate higher levels of self-presentation at baseline will improve less on our outcome measures.

The second aim of the study has two related objectives. First, we will attempt to investigate whether the expressive writing intervention can increase and enhance an individual's emotion regulation abilities. Related to this, we will then go on to examine whether emotion regulation can be looked at as a potential mechanism of action in the expressive writing procedure. Related to these two objectives, we hypothesize that in comparison to the control group, participants in the expressive writing condition will show increases in their ability to regulate their emotions from baseline to four week follow up. Moreover, we predict that greater gains in emotion regulation abilities for the expressive writing participants will be significantly related to greater gains in outcome measures.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

75

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • Canada
    • Ontario
      • Toronto, Ontario, Canada, M5S 1V6
        • Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

18 years to 65 years (Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Fluent in English
  • Previously experienced trauma (not current or ongoing; excluding bereavement)
  • Currently experiencing trauma-related distress

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Currently involved in psychotherapy
  • Currently taking psychotropic medications
  • Imminent threat to self or others

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Treatment
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: Single

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Placebo Comparator: Control
Behavioral: Control
Participants will write as factually as possible about an assigned trivial topic for 20 minutes on each of three consecutive days
Experimental: Expressive Writing
Behavioral: Expressive Writing
Participants will write about their experienced trauma for 20 minutes on each of three consecutive days using techniques associated with expressive writing
Other Names:
  • Emotional writing

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Time Frame
Posttraumatic Stress Diagnostic Scale
Time Frame: Initial session; One month follow-up
Initial session; One month follow-up

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Time Frame
Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale
Time Frame: Initial session; One month follow-up
Initial session; One month follow-up
Pennebaker Inventory of Limbic Languidness
Time Frame: Initial session; One month follow-up
Initial session; One month follow-up
Beck Depression Inventory, Second Edition
Time Frame: Initial session; One month follow-up
Initial session; One month follow-up

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

University of Toronto

Investigators

  • Study Director: Jeanne C Watson, Ph.D., University of Toronto
  • Principal Investigator: Justin M Mattina, M.A., University of Toronto
  • Principal Investigator: Jonathan J Danson, B.A., University of Toronto

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start

February 1, 2009

Primary Completion (Actual)

November 1, 2010

Study Completion (Actual)

November 1, 2010

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

January 28, 2009

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

January 28, 2009

First Posted (Estimate)

January 29, 2009

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Estimate)

May 12, 2016

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

May 10, 2016

Last Verified

May 1, 2016

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 23614
  • SSHRC 767-2007-2210-4

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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