Does Expressive Writing Reduce Stress and Improve Health for Family Caregivers of Older Adults?

Purpose: We examined whether written emotional disclosure reduces stress and improves health outcomes for family caregivers of physically frail and cognitively impaired older adults, as it has been shown to do for certain student and clinical populations. Design and Methods: Primary caregivers of ol...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Gerontologist 2007-06, Vol.47 (3), p.296-306
Main Authors: Mackenzie, Corey S., Wiprzycka, Ursula J., Hasher, Lynn, Goldstein, David
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adults
Aged
Canada
Caregiver Burden
Caregiver stress
Caregivers
Caregivers - psychology
Clinical trials
Comparative Analysis
Coping
Day Programs
Effectiveness
Elderly
Emotional Response
Emotions
Expressive Language
Expressive writing
Female
Fibromyalgia
Foreign Countries
Health psychology
Health Status
Humans
Intervention
Male
Mental Health
Middle Aged
Older Adults
Physical Health
Psychological Stress
Randomized clinical trial
Rheumatoid arthritis
Self Disclosure
Self Disclosure (Individuals)
Stress Management
Stress Variables
Stress, Psychological - therapy
Studies
Time Management
Time Utilization
Writing
Writing (Composition)
Written disclosure
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Summary:Purpose: We examined whether written emotional disclosure reduces stress and improves health outcomes for family caregivers of physically frail and cognitively impaired older adults, as it has been shown to do for certain student and clinical populations. Design and Methods: Primary caregivers of older adults attending a day program were randomly assigned to expressive-writing (n = 14), time-management (n = 13), or history-writing (n = 13) conditions. Participants wrote for 20 minutes on four occasions over a 2-week period, and they completed self-report measures of caregiver burden and health prior to the intervention, immediately afterward, and at 1-month follow-up. Results: Contrary to expectations, expressive-writing and history-writing participants performed similarly across outcomes. Only caregiver participants in the time-management condition experienced significant mental and physical health improvements after writing. Implications: The results of this study add to a growing body of research demonstrating equivocal effects of expressive writing with clinical samples, and they suggest the potential benefit of written time management for stressed caregivers.
ISSN:0016-9013
1758-5341
DOI:10.1093/geront/47.3.296