THE EFFECTS OF EXPRESSIVE WRITING ON

GENERAL AND MATHEMATICS ANXIETY FOR A

SAMPLE OF HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS

clauDia l. hines
Newport News VA Public Schools

nina W. broWn
sTeve Myran
Old Dominion University

Ninety-three (n=93) students in grades 9-12 who failed the Virginia

Standards of Learning mathematics test were placed into experimental
and control groups. Pre and posttest measures for general and math-
ematics anxiety, and physical symptoms of stress were administered.
The Expressive Writing intervention was used with both groups where
the experimental group (n=54) wrote on a value latent topic and the
control group (n=39) wrote on a neutral topic for 15 minutes a day
for three days. Findings showed that the experimental group reported
significantly reduced levels of general and mathematics anxiety after
the writing intervention and the control group had a reduction in math-
ematics anxiety after the expressive writing intervention.
Keywords: Adolescents; Expressive Writing, anxiety, mathematics
anxiety; high school, test anxiety, MARS, MAACL-R

Test anxiety and mathematics anxiety to high mathematics anxiety across all junior
have been shown to affect the performance of and senior high school grade levels for males.
students in the classroom and on tests. Hem- Females experienced this relationship during
bree’s (1988) meta-analysis of 562 studies junior high and senior high transition periods.
and other studies on the relationship between This study examined the effects of a writ-
test anxiety and academic performance con- ing intervention on general and mathematics
cluded that test anxiety can inhibit academic anxiety for two groups of high school students
performance (Cizek & Burg, 2006; McDon- at one urban high school who failed the geom-
ald, 2001; Zeidner & Mathews, 2005). etry state test to determine if the intervention
Mathematics anxiety has been shown could reduce anxiety.
to be consistently related to mathematics
performance (Hembree, 1990; Hsiu-Zu et A Writing Intervention
al., 2000). Ma & Zu (2004) used structural Expressive writing is an intervention
equation modeling to examine the causal where individuals write about personally
ordering between mathematics anxiety and upsetting experiences for 15 to 20 minutes
mathematics achievement and found that pri- each day for several days. In randomizing
or poor mathematics achievement was related experiments, the intervention produced

39
40 / Education Vol. 137 No. 1

positive effects on diverse aspects of physical Participants

and mental health, including reductions in Two intact classes were identified as either
health center visits, self-reported illness, and an experimental group or a control group and
depressive symptoms and improvements in there was a total of 93 participants; fifty-one
immune system and role functioning (Penne- females and forty-two males ranging in age
baker, 1997a, 1997b; Smyth, 1998; Smyth & from 14 to 19 (M =16.56, SD = 1.03), from
Pennebaker, 2001; Lepore & Smyth, 2002). various socio-economic backgrounds. Grade
Lumley and Provenzano (2003) examined point averages ranged from 1.11 (D) to 2.93
expressive writings effect on academic (B-) (M = 1.92, SD = .41). Self-identified
performance of college students over four racial/ethnic groups were 71 (75.5%) Afri-
days. The results showed that students in the can-American/Non-Hispanic, 17 (18.1%)
experimental group had the improved grade Caucasian/Non-Hispanic, 3 (3.2%) Hispanic,
point averages in subsequent semesters 1 ( 1.1%) Asian, and 2 (2.1%) identified as
and improved mood. Other studies such as Multiracial.
Pennebaker & Francis, (1996); Cameron &
Nicholls, (1998); Cohen et. al. (2006), and Instruments
Wilson, (2006), found significant benefits for
The Pennebaker Inventory of Limbic Lan-
students’ grade point averages.
guidness (PILL) (Pennebaker,1997) measures
Method the frequency that general physical symptoms
and sensations associated with stress are ex-
A mixed model research design was used perienced. The PILL used was Pennebaker’s
to explore the effects of expressive writing on Symptom/Emotion Checklist that contained
cognitive processes, physical stress, general 20 items common to both the checklist and
affective states and traits, and mathematics the inventory and related to an adolescent
anxiety. To detect a medium difference be- population. It has a Cronbach alpha of .88, a
tween two independent means at α = .05 re- test re-test reliability of the alternative scoring
quires n = 64 in each group for power analysis method and the original scoring method over
and there were 93 participants in this study. a two month period (n=177) was .79 and .83
After approval by the university and respectively.
school system’s IRB, the geometry teachers The Math Anxiety Rating Scale (MARS)
were recruited to allow their classes to par- was developed by Suinn to provide a uni-
ticipate in the study, permission letters were dimensional measure of anxiety related to
distributed and the purpose and procedure number operations and other mathematical
for the study were explained. Students were concepts (Suinn, Edie, Nicoletti, & Spinelli,
informed that their answers to measures and 1972), and was later normed for secondary
writings will not be shown to their classmates, high schools by Suinn & Edwards (1982). It
parents, guardians, or teachers. An option to has a reliability coefficient of .90, an internal
not participate was provided and there was no consistency, coefficient alpha of .96, and a
penalty for not participating. Students who test-retest reliability of .90 (p<.001).
chose to not participate were given an assign- The Multiple Affect Adjective Check-
ment by the teacher. A letter was sent to the list-Revised (MAACL-R), developed by
parents of seniors, although most were of age Lubin and Zuckerman (1999) is composed
to sign without parental consent. of 132 adjectives to measure affective
states and traits of Anxiety, Depression, and
 Expressive Writing for High School Students / 41

Hostility, subscales to assess Positive Affect, squared = .09]. Statistically differences were
Sensation Seeking, and Dysphoria, a com- not found for other MAACL-R scales.
posite score (PASS), and can be used with Analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) was
high school students. conducted to determine if there were signif-
icant differences between the experimental
Expressive Writing Intervention and control groups post test scores using their
The Basic Writing Paradigm (Pennebaker, respective pre-test scores as covariates. A sig-
1997) was used and each class was assigned nificant difference was found between groups
to either an experimental group or a control on Anxiety [F(1, 93) = 3.8 , p = .05, partial
group. Each group was tasked with writing eta squared = .04]. No other scales showed
for 15 to 30 minutes over three consecutive significant differences between the groups on
days about an assigned topic. The experi- post test scores.
mental group wrote about their feelings A one-way analysis of variance (ANO-
about mathematics, the state tests, and about VA) was conducted to determine if there
school. The control group wrote about plans was a significant difference between the
after high schools, perceptions of teachers, experimental group and the control group
and the favorite time of year. Groups were on pre-test scores of mathematics anxiety.
compared on changes in well-being from While no statistically significant difference
baseline to follow-up which was 1 – 3 days was found between the two groups, F(1, 93 )
after the last Expressive Writing interven- = 2.3, p>.05, it should be noted that the ex-
tion. Pre and post-tests were administered in perimental group had a higher mean anxiety
the intact classes, and students were taken to score (M = 232.7, SD = 74.5) than did the
the computer lab to write essays which were control group (M = 209.3, SD = 71.9).
saved on thumb drives that were then col- A one-way analysis of covariance (ANCO-
lected and kept by the researcher. VA) was conducted to compare the effect of
expressive writing on anxiety between groups
Data Analyses on the posttest using the pretest MARS scores
A one-way analysis of covariance (AN- for each group as covariates. The results indi-
COVA) was conducted to compare the ratings cated that there was no statistically significant
on the posttest, using the pretest PILL scores difference in post MARS scores between the
as a covariate. The results indicated that there experimental group and control group, F(1, 93)
was no statistical significant differences on = 1.9, p>.05, partial eta squared = .02. Howev-
post PILL scores between the experimen- er, there was a 22 point difference between the
tal group and the control group, F(1, 93) = experimental group (M = 218.8, SD = 77.7)
3.5, p>.05. A one-way analysis of variance and the control group’s mean anxiety scores
(ANOVA) was conducted to determine if (M = 196.8, SD = 71.6) on the post test.
there were significant differences between the
Analyses of Essays
experimental group and the control group on
pre-test scores for the MAACL-R. Statistical- Qualitative Analysis included content
ly significant pretest differences between the analysis of writing samples obtained from the
experimental group and control groups were experimental and control groups. The essays
found on Depression [F(1, 93) = 4.9, p<=.03, for days 1 and 3 were analyzed for changes
partial eta squared = .00], Anxiety [F(1, 93) for cognitive processes, psychological pro-
= 6.4, p=.01, partial eta squared = .06], and cesses and social process using the Linguistic
Dysphoria [F(1, 93) = 9.2, p=.00, partial eta Inquiry Word Count (LIWC 2001). Cognitive
42 / Education Vol. 137 No. 1

processes refer to how individuals compute, A one way AVOVA was conducted be-
memorize, read, perceive, and solve prob- tween the experimental and control group
lems; examples of categories for cognitive mean scores on Day 1 and Day 3 psycholog-
processes are insight, tentative, exclusive and ical processes. Statistically significant differ-
inclusive. Psychological processes refer to ences were found between groups on Day 1
human interactions. Examples of categories essays for Negative Emotions (F = -6.4, p
for psychological processes include negative =.00); Anxiety (F = -2.3, p =.02) ; Anger (F
emotions, anger, sadness, and positive emo- = -3.6, p =.00) and Sadness(F = -2.5, p =.01).
tions. Social Process refers to family, friends, The experimental group had higher means
and humans in general. The computer pro- for all categories. Statistically significant
gram counted the words used that fall into the differences were found between groups on
categories and the subcategories for cognitive Day 3 essays for Social Processes (F =5.7, p
processes, psychological processes, and so- =.00); Affective Processes (F = 2.7, p =.01) ;
cial processes for days 1 and 3 essays. Means Positive Emotions (t = 4.7, p=.00); Negative
and standard deviations were computed for Emotions (t = -3.0, p =.00); Anxiety (t = -2.4,
each group on each category and subcategory. p =.02); and Sadness (t = -3.5, p =.00).
A series of paired samples t tests were A series of paired samples t- tests were
conducted to determine if there were signif- conducted to determine if there were signif-
icant differences within the experimental and icant differences within the experimental and
control groups’ mean scores from Day 1 to control groups’ mean scores from Day 1 to
Day 3 on cognitive processes categories. A Day 3 on psychological processes categories.
statically significant difference was found for Statistically significant differences for the ex-
the experimental group for Insight (t = -3.4, perimental group were found for Social Pro-
p=.00, (two-tailed). Statistically significant cesses (t = 3.5, p =.00 (two-tailed); Friends (t
differences were found for the control group = 2.5, p =.01, (two-tailed); and Humans (t =
between Day 1 and Day 3 on Cognitive Pro- 4.0, p =.00 (two-tailed). Statistically signifi-
cesses (t = -2.3, p =.02 (two-tailed); Insight (t cant differences were found between Day 1
= -3.7, p =.00 (two-tailed); and Causation (t = and Day 3 mean scores for Social Processes
2.5, p =.02 (two-tailed). (t = -4.7, p =.00 (two-tailed); Family (t = 2.4,
A one way AVOVA was conducted to de- p=.02, (two-tailed); Affective Processes ( t =
termine if there were significant differences -2.9, p =.00, (two-tailed); Negative Emotions
between the experimental and control groups’ (t = -3.3, p =.00 (two-tailed); Anger (t = -3.1,
mean scores on Day 1 and Day 3 on cogni- p=.00 (two-tailed), and Positive Emotions (t =
tive processes scores. For Day 1, statistically -2.0, p = .05, (two-tailed).
significant differences between the groups A series of paired t-tests were computed
were found for Cognitive Processes (F = -2.7, for social processes for within day 1 and day
p =.01), Insight (F = -4.7, p=.00), Tentative 3 differences for both groups. The experimen-
(F = -2.8, p =.01 ), Inclusive (F =2.0, p =.04) tal group showed a significant reduction in
and Exclusive ( F = -3.6, p =.01). For Day 3, the means for overall social process (t=3.5,
statistically significant differences were found p<.00); friends (t=2.5, p<.01); and humans
for Insight (F =2.7, p =.01), Inclusive (F =2.4, (t=4.0, p<.001) between day 1 and day 3. The
p =.02) and Exclusive ( F= -3.0, p =.03) . The control group showed a significant increase
experimental group reporter higher means on in the mean for overall social process (t=-4.7,
day 3 categories showing significant differ- p<001); and a decrease for family (t=2.4,
ences, except the Inclusive subcategory. p<.02).
 Expressive Writing for High School Students / 43

A one-way ANOVA was conducted to anxiety and sadness on both day one
determine if there were significant between and day three. The control group used
group differences for day 1 and day 3. The more positive words and happy words
results showed no significant difference be- in their writing with some indication
tween groups for day 1 social processes and of anxiety.
categories, but did have a significant differ- The Expressive Writing intervention re-
ence for day 3 for overall social processes duced both general and mathematics anxiety
with the experimental group’s mean decreas- for the experimental group, and the control
ing, and the control group’s mean increasing group showed decreased mathematics anxiety
(F=5.7, p<.001). even though they did not write on emotional
Results laden topics as did the experimental group. It
should be noted that even though considerable
Major findings include the following. effort was expended to developed neutral top-
ics, it is likely that the topics for the control
• Physical symptoms of stress as mea-
group did have emotional associations.
sured by the PILL were not signifi-
Perhaps the finding that may have the
cantly decreased. It is likely that the
most importance for students, counselors and
short period (3 days) between initial
teachers is the findings for the experimental
administration and the follow-up
group on cognitive processes. The differences
administration was not sufficient to
for day 1 and day 3 essays showed a differ-
assess changes. The usual follow-up
ence in how members of the experimental
period is months after the initial
group were better able to process and express
administration.
their thoughts with words that reflected or-
• General anxiety as measured by the ganization of thought patterns, and to use of
MAACL-R was significantly reduced words to indicate what they knew and con-
for the experimental group. sidered possibilities. They used exclusive
• Both the experimental and control words and expressed feelings about a subject
groups had a significant decrease in which their performance was very low. The
for mathematics anxiety after the control group used more words connecting
intervention. and giving examples as evidenced by the use
of inclusive words as they wrote about their
• Cognitive Processes: The differenc- plans after high school.
es between day 1 and day 3 essays The findings for psychological processes
demonstrated that the experimen- revealed that the experimental group used
tal group was able to process their more negative words and words expressing
thoughts in areas of discussion with anger, anxiety and sadness on both days one
words reflecting organizing their and three. The control group used more pos-
thought patterns, and indicating what itive words and happy words in their essays.
they knew and considered possibili-
ties. The control group for this period Discussion
demonstrated a significant increase
Conclusions are tentative because of the
for connecting and giving examples.
sample size and unique characteristics and
• Psychological Processes: The exper- may not be generalizable to other high school
imental group used more negative students as the sample was drawn from one
words and words expressing anger,
44 / Education Vol. 137 No. 1

high school in an urban area. However, the interventions are needed to address the devel-
results are suggestive of the positive bene- opment of related anxiety components expe-
fits for using Expressive Writing to reduce rienced by students. Further anxiety related
anxiety so that students may be able to per- research is needed to examine the association
form better on academic tasks, especially between achievement and achievement-ori-
mathematics tests. The intervention is simple ented variables by comparing groups of
and easy to use taking only 15 minutes each classes (Leitenberg, 1990). In addition, more
day for three days to be effective, and high wide-ranging information concerning the
school teachers and counselors can imple- characteristics of adolescents involved in test
ment it. The essays need not be analyzed to anxiety intervention programs is necessary to
produce results for the students, as it seems determine which interventions are effective
that the act of writing about an emotionally with below college age populations.
laden topic produces positive outcomes.
Claudia L. Hines is the Director of Guid-
Implications for Future Research ance for the school system. Nina W. Brown
There is a considerable lack of research on is a professor and eminent scholar in the de-
test anxiety reduction programs for students partment of Counseling and Human Services,
including those at the elementary, middle, and and Steve Myran is an associate professor in
secondary levels, with most of the existing the department of Educational Leadership and
research focusing on college populations. Foundations at Old Dominion University.
More test anxiety (Hembree, 1988) and
math anxiety (Luzzo, Hasper, Albert, Bibby,
& Martinelli, 1999; Furner & Duffy, 2002)
 Expressive Writing for High School Students / 45

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