title: A school-based expressive writing intervention for at-risk urban adolescents' aggressive behavior and emotional lability.
abstract: This school-based randomized controlled trial tested the efficacy of 2 expressive writing interventions among youth living in high-violence urban neighborhoods. Seventeen classrooms (n = 258 seventh graders; 55% female; 91% African American/Black) from 3 public schools were randomized to 3 conditions in which they wrote 8 times about a nonemotional topic (control condition) or about experiencing and witnessing violence following either a standard or an enhanced expressive writing protocol. Outcomes were assessed 1 month prior and 2 and 6 months postintervention and included teacher-rated emotional lability and aggressive behavior and child-rated physical aggression. Intent-to-treat, mixed-model analyses controlled for preintervention measures of outcomes, sex, race, and family structure. At 2 months postintervention, relative to controls, students in the standard expressive writing condition had lower levels of teacher-rated aggression and lability (d = -.48). The beneficial effects of the writing interventions on aggression and lability were stronger at higher levels of community violence exposure.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA 23284-2018, USA. wkliewer@vcu.edu
authors.forename: Wendy
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Kliewer
authors.forename: Stephen J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Lepore
authors.forename: Albert D
authors.initials: AD
authors.lastname: Farrell
authors.forename: Kevin W
authors.initials: KW
authors.lastname: Allison
authors.forename: Aleta L
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Meyer
authors.forename: Terri N
authors.initials: TN
authors.lastname: Sullivan
authors.forename: Anne Y
authors.initials: AY
authors.lastname: Greene
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior / Q000523:psychology; D000374:Aggression / Q000523:psychology*; D001521:Behavior Therapy; D004644:Emotions; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012309:Risk-Taking; D012574:Schools; D012931:Social Environment; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D014505:Urban Population; D014754:Violence / Q000523:psychology; D014956:Writing