Written emotional expression and health: efficacy of treatment implementation via mail

Abstract

Studies examining the impact of written emotional expression on health have demonstrated repeatedly that writing about emotional experiences produces positive health effects compared to writing about non-emotional topics. The present study investigated whether administering writing assignments over email instead of having participants come in to the lab to write (as in previous studies) would produce health benefits. Individual differences between participants were also examined, but were not found to impact treatment effectiveness. Participants in the treatment condition exhibited better health outcomes overall than participants in the control condition. The study's results suggest that even when administered through e-mail, the emotional writing treatment produces positive health outcomes.