A comparison of written emotional expression and planning with respect to bulimic symptoms and associated psychopathology

Abstract

Written emotional expression using Pennebaker's paradigm has been shown to produce significant improvements in health and psychological functioning in student groups and some clinical groups. This paradigm has not been examined with respect to disordered eating or its associated psychopathology. The current study examined 98 female university students (mean age ¼ 22.75 years, SD ¼ 8.31) who were randomly assigned to either an emotional expression writing condition relating to past trauma, or a control writing condition that focused on future planning. The students repeated the writing task on three occasions in 1 week. All measures were completed at baseline and 10-week follow-up; measures of distress were additionally completed after each occasion of writing. A significant two-way interaction was found for ineffectiveness and disordered eating showing both variables to decrease in the planning compared to the emotional expression condition over time. A significant threeway interaction for externalised self-perception showed different levels of denial coping affected the helpfulness of both writing paradigms. Investigation of a variety of forms of structured therapeutic writing is advocated with clinical eating disorder populations.

Expressive writing and eating disorder features: A preliminary trial in a student sample of the impact of three writing tasks on eating disorder symptoms and associated cognitive, affective and interpersonal factors

“…This is consistent with previous studies suggesting that emotionally-avoidant individuals are less likely to benefit from Pennebakerstyle writing tasks (Frayne & Wade, 2006;Stanton et al, 2002). The present findings furthermore suggest that individuals with avoidant traits may be reluctant to even engage in such writing tasks.…”

“…To date, there are also a small number of research studies suggesting that structured writing tasks can have a beneficial impact on various aspects of eating disorder symtomatology, including negative body image (Earnhardt, Martz, Ballard, & Curtin, 2002), bulimic symptoms (Frayne & Wade, 2006), thin-ideal internalisation (Stice, Shaw, Burton, & Wade, 2006), and eating disorder diagnosis (Robinson & Sefarty, 2008). The theoretical considerations outlined above suggest that expressive writing may particularly influence the cognitive, affective and interpersonal features associated with disordered eating, and a treatment programme which explicitly incorporates Pennebaker-style writing tasks has recently been developed (The Maudsley Eating Disorders Team, unpublished manual).…”

Therapeutic writing as an intervention for symptoms of bulimia nervosa: Effects and mechanism of change

“…Similar to findings of Frayne and Wade 18 and Earnhardt et al, 20 and in contrast to the findings of most therapeutic writing studies, the control task led to reductions in eating disorder symptomatology which were equivalent to those produced by the therapeutic writing task. This finding may have been influenced by a variety of factors.…”

“…Symptom decreases were statistically but not clinically significant. 41 Although the present results are more favorable than those of most previous studies exploring the use of therapeutic writing in BN, 12,15,18 the small to moderate effect sizes, large number of nonimprovers, and equivalence to the control task, suggest that therapeutic writing tasks are of limited benefit to individuals experiencing symptoms of bulimia nervosa.…”

Effects and Linguistic Analysis of Written Traumatic Emotional Disclosure in an Eating-Disordered Population

“…Results of some studies have suggested disclosure can modestly reduce cognitive and interpersonal features associated with eating disorders. 37,38 Another group suggests that emotional arousal from disclosure may be less beneficial for this population. 11 Another possible moderating factor of emotional disclosure is the coping style of participants.…”