The study of expressive writing as early prevention of depression among community-dwelling older adults

2015 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 15K13156
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Clinical psychology
• Research Institution: Tokyo Metropolitan Geriatric Hospital and Institute of Gerontology
• Principal Investigator: Suzuki Hiroyuki 地方独立行政法人東京都健康長寿医療センター(東京都健康長寿医療センター研究所), 東京都健康長寿医療センター研究所, 研究員 (90531418)
• Project Period (FY): 2015-04-01 – 2016-03-31
• Keywords: 筆記表現法 / 地域在住高齢者 / うつ / 反すう

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Expressive writing is one of the alternative ways to manage stress. It consists in writing about one’s stressful event. The aim of this study was to examine effectiveness of expressive writing for healthy older Japanese and usability of expressive writing by mailing contact.
The results showed that participants who had higher rumination scores had the larger extent of the decline after expressive writing than their counterparts. Furthermore, participants who engage in writing task rated affirmatively usability questionnaire (e.g., "Do you think expressive writing was difficult?", "Do you think expressive writing was useful?").
Our results suggest that higher negative rumination at pre-test is related to the degree of the decline of negative rumination and that expressive writing by mailing is expected to spread.

Free Research Field

心理学