Abstract:
Written emotional disclosure has been shown to result in a number of salutary effects on health. However, few studies have been conducted in non-Western populations such as Asians. The present study aimed to investigate the effects of an expressive writing (EW) intervention on health outcomes in an all-Asian cohort, in addition to examining whether any effects observed are moderated by inhibitory personality styles which are characteristic of this cultural group. A total of 182 participant were recruited from around New Zealand, 156 of which were recruited for the next phase of the study. The latter sample of participants represented those with relatively high and low levels of emotional inhibition and were randomly assigned to 20 minutes of expressive writing (intervention) or descriptive writing (control) on two consecutive days. Emotional inhibition, alexithymia, and social desirability were assessed at baseline, while self-reported psychological distress, physical symptoms, health status, and healthcare utilization were assessed at baseline and one-month follow-up. Repeated measures analyses of covariance (ANCOVAs) with alexithymia as covariate, and writing group, inhibition level and time as factors revealed that EW reduced psychological distress for disclosure participants over time irrespective of their inhibitory tendencies. EW did not differentially benefit participants’ physical health outcomes. The findings of this study provided evidence for the generalizability of the EW intervention in improving mental health outcomes for Asian individuals. Further, the study points to the possibility that supplementing the standard EW protocol with a cognitive processing component may prove to be beneficial in improving physical health outcomes for Asian individuals, while the inclusion of a self-regulatory task may assist individuals with an inhibitory personality to cope better with the negative emotional effects of their dispositional coping style.
