Framing written emotional expression from a religious perspective: Effects on depressive symptoms

Objective: Previous research has found an inverse association between exposure to emotional trauma and well-being. More recently, studies on written emotional expression found that repeated expression of a traumatic experience is beneficial to physical health. However, possible mechanisms through which written emotional expression may work to influence health are still under investigation. Recent research on psychological stress has also found associations among religion, meaning, and health. This study evaluated the effects of taking a religious perspective while engaged in written emotional expression. Method: Participants included 215 college students, who were assigned randomly to one of three experimental groups. One was given conventional written emotional expression instructions for writing about a traumatic experience; another was instructed to write about the trauma from a religious/spiritual perspective; a control group wrote about a trivial topic. Results: Compared with control participants, those in the trauma-religion condition experienced significantly greater reductions in depressive symptoms at 1-month follow-up. Conventional trauma writing had no effect on dependent measures. Conclusion: These findings encourage further investigation of religion as a factor that may augment the health-promoting effects of written emotional expression.