The influence of journaling on the reduction of physical symptoms, health problems, and anxiety in women

There is a critical need for women to have cost effective tools for dealing with daily stressors, traumatic events, and somatic symptoms. Anxiety, medical conditions, and physical symptoms are a major source of struggle in women, crossing lines of ethnicity, age, education level, and marital status. A sample of twenty seven women participated in this study, comparing those that journaled (n=15) to those that wrote (n=12), to determine if journaling helped reduce physical symptoms, medical conditions, and anxiety levels in women. The two groups were compared using the PILL Symptom Checklist, SMU Health Questionnaire, Taylor Manifest Anxiety Scale, and the Marlowe Crowne Social Desirability Scale before intervention, as well as after a four-week intervention was completed. The experimental group participants were instructed to journal for a continuous twenty-minute period about their deepest thoughts and feelings about a specific stressful or traumatic event. The control group participants were instructed to write and plan out their weekly schedule for a continuous twenty-minute period. The results indicated that there were no statistically significant differences between the control and experimental groups upon completing the four weeks of intervention. This indicates that the journaling group participants were not significantly better or worse than the writing group upon completing the intervention. However, there were significant decreases in physical symptoms and medical symptoms in the experimental group (journaling), as well as a significant decrease in medical conditions in the control group (writing). There were no statistically significant changes in either group in terms of levels of trait anxiety or in social desirability throughout the four-week period. Thus, this study indicates that both writing and journaling may be helpful in the reduction of physical symptoms and medical conditions in women; however, it is unclear from this study whether other factors played a major or minor role in the reduction of health and physical symptoms. Treatment implications and suggested future research are also discussed.