The Effects of Expressive Writing on General and Mathematics Anxiety for a Sample of High School Students

Abstract

Test anxiety and mathematics anxiety have been shown to affect the performance of students in the classroom and on tests. Hembree's (1988) meta-analysis of 562 studies and other studies on the relationship between test anxiety and academic performance concluded that test anxiety can inhibit academic performance (Cizek & Burg, 2006; McDonald, 2001; Zeidner & Mathews, 2005). Mathematics anxiety has been shown to be consistently related to mathematics performance (Hembree, 1990; Hsiu-Zu et al., 2000). Ma & Zu (2004) used structural equation modeling to examine the causal ordering between mathematics anxiety and mathematics achievement and found that prior poor mathematics achievement was related to high mathematics anxiety across all junior and senior high school grade levels for males. Females experienced this relationship during junior high and senior high transition periods. This study examined the effects of a writing intervention on general and mathematics anxiety for two groups of high school students at one urban high school who failed the geometry state test to determine if the intervention could reduce anxiety. A Writing Intervention Expressive writing is an intervention where individuals write about personally upsetting experiences for 15 to 20 minutes each day for several days. In randomizing experiments, the intervention produced positive effects on diverse aspects of physical and mental health, including reductions in health center visits, self-reported illness, and depressive symptoms and improvements in immune system and role functioning (Pennebaker, 1997a, 1997b; Smyth, 1998; Smyth & Pennebaker, 2001; Lepore & Smyth, 2002). Lumley and Provenzano (2003) examined expressive writings effect on academic performance of college students over four days. The results showed that students in the experimental group had the improved grade point averages in subsequent semesters and improved mood. Other studies such as Pennebaker & Francis, (1996); Cameron & Nicholls, (1998); Cohen et. al. (2006), and Wilson, (2006), found significant benefits for students' grade point averages. Method A mixed model research design was used to explore the effects of expressive writing on cognitive processes, physical stress, general affective states and traits, and mathematics anxiety. To detect a medium difference between two independent means at a = .05 requires n = 64 in each group for power analysis and there were 93 participants in this study. After approval by the university and school system's IRB, the geometry teachers were recruited to allow their classes to participate in the study, permission letters were distributed and the purpose and procedure for the study were explained. Students were informed that their answers to measures and writings will not be shown to their classmates, parents, guardians, or teachers. An option to not participate was provided and there was no penalty for not participating. Students who chose to not participate were given an assignment by the teacher. A letter was sent to the parents of seniors, although most were of age to sign without parental consent. Participants Two intact classes were identified as either an experimental group or a control group and there was a total of 93 participants; fifty-one females and forty-two males ranging in age from 14 to 19 (M =16.56, SD = 1.03), from various socio-economic backgrounds. Grade point averages ranged from 1.11 (D) to 2.93 (B-) (M = 1.92, SD = .41). Self-identified racial/ethnic groups were 71 (75.5%) African-American/Non-Hispanic, 17 (18.1%) Caucasian/Non-Hispanic, 3 (3.2%) Hispanic, 1 (1.1%) Asian, and 2 (2.1%) identified as Multiracial. Instruments The Pennebaker Inventory of Limbic Languidness (PILL) (Pennebaker, 1997) measures the frequency that general physical symptoms and sensations associated with stress are experienced. …