The Role of Affect Regulation and Self-presentation in the Expressive Writing Intervention

NCT ID: NCT00831727

Last Updated: 2016-05-12

Basic Information

• Recruitment Status: COMPLETED
• Clinical Phase: NA
• Total Enrollment: 75 participants
• Study Classification: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Start Date: 2009-02-28
• Study Completion Date: 2010-11-30

Brief Summary

The purpose of the present study is twofold. First, we will attempt to examine the role that emotion regulation and self-presentation play as potential moderators in the expressive writing paradigm. We hypothesize that expressive writing participants who demonstrate greater abilities to regulate their emotions at baseline will improve more on our outcome measures. We also hypothesize that those expressive writing participants who demonstrate higher levels of self-presentation at baseline will improve less on our outcome measures.

The second aim of the study has two related objectives. First, we will attempt to investigate whether the expressive writing intervention can increase and enhance an individual's emotion regulation abilities. Related to this, we will then go on to examine whether emotion regulation can be looked at as a potential mechanism of action in the expressive writing procedure. Related to these two objectives, we hypothesize that in comparison to the control group, participants in the expressive writing condition will show increases in their ability to regulate their emotions from baseline to four week follow up. Moreover, we predict that greater gains in emotion regulation abilities for the expressive writing participants will be significantly related to greater gains in outcome measures.

Conditions

Posttraumatic Stress Disorders

Study Design

• Allocation Method: RANDOMIZED
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Primary Study Purpose: TREATMENT
• Blinding Strategy: SINGLE

Study Groups

Expressive Writing

Group Type: EXPERIMENTAL

Expressive Writing

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Participants will write about their experienced trauma for 20 minutes on each of three consecutive days using techniques associated with expressive writing

Control

Group Type: PLACEBO_COMPARATOR

Control

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Participants will write as factually as possible about an assigned trivial topic for 20 minutes on each of three consecutive days

Interventions

Expressive Writing

Participants will write about their experienced trauma for 20 minutes on each of three consecutive days using techniques associated with expressive writing

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Control

Participants will write as factually as possible about an assigned trivial topic for 20 minutes on each of three consecutive days

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Other Intervention Names

Emotional writing

Eligibility Criteria

Inclusion Criteria

• Fluent in English
• Previously experienced trauma (not current or ongoing; excluding bereavement)
• Currently experiencing trauma-related distress

Exclusion Criteria

• Currently involved in psychotherapy
• Currently taking psychotropic medications
• Imminent threat to self or others

• Minimum Eligible Age: 18 Years
• Maximum Eligible Age: 65 Years
• Eligible Sex: ALL
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No

Sponsors

University of Toronto

OTHER

Sponsor Role: lead

Responsible Party

Justin Mattina

Principal Investigator

Responsibility Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Principal Investigators

Jeanne C Watson, Ph.D.

Role: STUDY_DIRECTOR

University of Toronto

Justin M Mattina, M.A.

Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

University of Toronto

Jonathan J Danson, B.A.

Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

University of Toronto

Locations

Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Countries

Canada

Other Identifiers

SSHRC 767-2007-2210-4

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: secondary_id

23614

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id