Written emotional expression: effect sizes, outcome types, and moderating variables.

Abstract in brief

• A research synthesis found that written emotional expression significantly improved health outcomes in healthy individuals, particularly in physical health, psychological wellbeing, physiological, and general functioning, though it did not affect health behaviors.
• Writing increased immediate distress from before to after the task, but this distress was not linked to long-term health outcomes.
• The effectiveness of written emotional expression on health was influenced by factors such as participant age (college students), gender, duration of writing, whether the study was published, and the specific instructions given for writing.