This study examines the benefits of an expressive writing intervention in 5th graders on well-being – anxiety and depression symptoms – and on working memory capacity. A classical paradigm of expressive writing was used in school children during their classroom time: half of the participants had to write about stressful and negative events of their own lives, whereas the other half had to write about a normal school day. Children were asked to write four times in two weeks, resulting in four days of writing. Each group completed questionnaires yielding measures of depression, anxiety, and working memory 3 times: before the intervention, just after the writing sessions and two months after following the intervention. The narratives were analyzed using Emotaix-Tropes software. The results revealed that all the children showed a decrease in depression and anxiety symptoms. By contrast, only children in the expressive writing group showed working memory improvement. The potential benefits of emotional disclosure in school children are discussed. While there are several possible explanations for these findings, the results of this study indicate, first, that expressive writing seems to be both feasible and potentially valuable for school children, and second, that some cognitive changes occur in terms of cognitive functioning.

中文翻译：

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小学生的表现力写作：对幸福感和工作记忆的影响

这项研究考察了五年级学生表现型写作干预对幸福感（焦虑和抑郁症状）以及工作记忆能力的益处。在课堂上，小学生在课堂上使用了典型的表现写作范式：一半的参与者不得不写自己生活中的压力和消极事件，而另一半则不得不写出正常的上课时间。要求孩子在两周内写四遍，因此需要四天的写作时间。每组完成问卷3次，以测量抑郁，焦虑和工作记忆的程度：干预前，写作后刚好以及干预后两个月。叙述采用Emotaix-Tropes软件进行分析。结果显示，所有儿童均表现出抑郁和焦虑症状的减轻。相比之下，只有表现型写作小组中的孩子表现出工作记忆的改善。讨论了在小学生中进行情感披露的潜在好处。尽管对这些发现有几种可能的解释，但这项研究的结果表明，首先，表达性写作对于小学生而言既可行又具有潜在价值，其次，在认知功能方面发生了一些认知变化。