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The Efficacy of Written Emotional Expression at Reducing Back and Headache Pain in College Students

Gabert-Quillen, Crystal A.
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1340909581

Abstract Details

2012, PHD, Kent State University, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of Psychological Sciences.
Little is known about pain symptoms in college undergraduates, perhaps due to the stereotype that they are a healthy, happy, and stress-free population. However, recent surveys have shown that students report relatively high levels of headache and back pain. Pain can have negative consequences such as decreases in academic performance and higher medication use. Oftentimes these pain symptoms are linked to psychosomatic (i.e., perceived stress) instead of neurological causes. Undergraduates often underestimate the impact of stress on their well-being and do not have many means to alleviate stress-induced pain. While empirically-supported interventions for pain exist, few have focused on an undergraduate population. One intervention technique that has been found to be effective at improving health symptoms of normal, healthy populations is written emotional expression (WEE; Pennebaker & Bealle, 1986). The current study investigated the efficacy of WEE at improving back pain and headaches in college students. One-hundred thirteen participants were randomized into either the WEE group (n = 56) or the time management group (n = 54) and 94 participants completed the study (WEE group: n = 48; time management group: n = 46). Compared to the time management group, WEE led to significant increases in positive mood and decreases in negative mood over the course of the writing sessions. Despite hypotheses that WEE participants would show improvements in mental and physical health over time, participation in the study, regardless of condition, was related to significant improvements in pain frequency and negative mood. A significant group x time interaction revealed that the WEE group had decreases in pain medication use while participants in the time management group has increases in pain medication use over time. More research should be conducted on the specific relationship between pain medication use and pain reports in undergraduates and the general population.
Douglas Delahanty, PhD (Advisor)
Jeffrey Ciesla, PhD (Committee Member)
Wendy Umberger, PhD (Committee Member)
John Updegraff, PhD (Committee Member)
116 p.
Psychology
written emotional disclosure; physical health; stress; pain; headaches; back pain

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Gabert-Quillen, C. A. (2012). The Efficacy of Written Emotional Expression at Reducing Back and Headache Pain in College Students [Doctoral dissertation, Kent State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1340909581

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Gabert-Quillen, Crystal. The Efficacy of Written Emotional Expression at Reducing Back and Headache Pain in College Students. 2012. Kent State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1340909581.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Gabert-Quillen, Crystal. "The Efficacy of Written Emotional Expression at Reducing Back and Headache Pain in College Students." Doctoral dissertation, Kent State University, 2012. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1340909581

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

kent1340909581
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© 2012, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by Kent State University and OhioLINK.