Captivation of state university: The impact of expressive writing therapy on students' academic stress and emotions

The objective of this study was to implement expressive writing therapy for a group of students who were preparing for state university entrance exams, given the competitive nature of these exams. The hypothesis was that this therapy would increase positive emotions and reduce negative emotions and academic stress. A pre-test and post-test design with a control group was conducted with a sample of fifty students, who were divided equally into two groups. The treatment was administered in accordance with Pennebaker's systematic approach, and was conducted online over a period of six days. The findings of this study offer substantial evidence to suggest that expressive writing therapy does not effectively mitigate student stress. Nevertheless, the efficacy of expressive writing therapy in enhancing positive emotions and mitigating negative emotions has been demonstrated. In the control group, negative affect and despondency levels exhibited a significant increase. Conversely, within the male treatment group, there was a decline in positive affect and an increase in negative affect. No significant alterations were detected in the female treatment group. In the male control group, only negative affect demonstrated significant alterations, while in the female control group, only workload exhibited significant changes.