Effects of A-2 Minute Single-Session Disclosure on PsychologicalSymptoms Among Female Traumatized Undergraduates

Although, expressive writing with standard time frame has been shown tohave health benefits for healthy participants, but, there is no study aboutminimum dosage of disclosure, specially, among pre-screened traumasurvivors. Present study sought to examine the minimum dosage requiredto improve psychological health among female undergraduates withhistory of non-interpersonal trauma as well as the moderating role ofindividual differences. 46 pre-screened traumatized undergraduates afterpre-intervention assessments, randomly assigned to write for a 2-minutesession either about non-interpersonal traumas (disclosure) or universitycampus (control) topics in psychological laboratory. Then, they wereassessed at post-intervention and 3-weeks later. A 2-minute version ofwritten disclosure led to an immediate increase in negative mood, physicalsymptoms and subjective distress while writing which attenuated afterwriting. Also, trauma writing group assessed their experience of writingmore emotional, more personal, more stressful, more difficult, moremeaningful and more valuable than did controls. Although, there was alimited main group effects, however, the baseline individual differencessignificantly moderated group effects. Compared with control writing,disclosure led to improved psychological health among femaleundergraduates with lower baseline emotional approach coping andemotional expression, high baseline distress and sever trauma.Furthermore, several mechanisms of change were observed such ashabituation, catharsis, devaluation, recognition of traumatic events and(marginally) acceptance. The minimum dosage required may be lower thanpreviously thought and concerning its effects, the moderating role ofbaseline individual differences must be considered.

کلیدواژه ها:

2–minute disclosure ، Psychological Symptoms ، Moderators