EXPRESS: Effects of reappraisal and self-compassion expressive writing on emotion regulation

Expressive writing is the disclosure of negative events in a safe and non-threatening environment while focusing on the feelings and emotions associated with an experience. Studies have proposed that alternative expressive writing instructions can influence expressive writing outcomes and shed light on the benefits of the intervention. Thus, we created two novel expressive writing instructions susceptible to inducing emotion regulation: a reappraisal and a self-compassion instruction. Sixty-six college students at a university were randomly assigned to either reappraisal or a self-compassion expressive group. Positive and negative affect, emotion regulation, anxiety, and alexithymia were measured before and after writing. ECG was recorded during the experiment to examine the effects of the writing exercise on the Autonomous Nervous System. We found that expressive writing decreased HR (d = 0.63) and alexithymia (d = 0.55) in both groups. In addition, LF/HF ratio was higher in the reappraisal expressive group (d = 0.70). These findings support the use of expressive writing as a tool to promote emotion regulation.