A School-Based Expressive Writing Intervention for At-Risk Urban Adolescents' Aggressive Behavior and Emotional Lability

• NCJ Number: 253699
• Journal: Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology Volume: 40 Issue: 5 Dated: 2011 Pages: 693-705
• Author(s): Wendy Kliewer; Stephen J. Lepore; Albert D. Farrell; Kevin W. Allison; Aleta L Meyer; Terri N Sullivan; Anne V. Greene
• Date Published: 2011
• Length: 13 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Research (Applied/Empirical); Report (Study/Research); Program/Project Evaluation; Program/Project Description
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This school-based randomized controlled trial tested the efficacy of two expressive writing interventions among youth living in high-violence urban neighborhoods.

Abstract

Seventeen classrooms (n = 258 seventh graders; 55 percent female; 91 percent African American/Black) from three public schools were randomized to three conditions in which they wrote eight times about a non-emotional topic (control condition) or about experiencing and witnessing violence following either a standard or an enhanced expressive writing protocol. Outcomes were assessed 1 month prior and 2 and 6 months post-intervention and included teacher-rated emotional lability and aggressive behavior and child-rated physical aggression. Intent-to-treat, mixed-model analyses controlled for pre-intervention measures of outcomes, sex, race, and family structure. At 2 months postintervention, relative to controls, students in the standard expressive writing condition had lower levels of teacher-rated aggression and lability (d = -.48). The beneficial effects of the writing interventions on aggression and lability were stronger at higher levels of exposure to community violence. (publisher abstract modified)