Single-session expressive writing interventions for test anxiety: a meta-analysis

Test anxiety is a common experience, and a variety of intervention approaches for it have been developed. In recent years, single sessions of expressive writing (a brief exercise in which students write about their worries just prior to taking a test) have been promoted as an intervention.

We conducted a meta-analysis to determine whether single-session expressive writing reduces test anxiety or increases test performance.

Our literature search yielded 15 relevant documents comprising 21 studies (total N = 1,457 participants), with 30 effect sizes across measures of anxiety and test performance.

Our meta-analysis found only a negligible, nonsignificant effect of expressive writing on anxiety (r = -.05, p = .57), an effect that remained nonsignificant after an extreme outlier was removed (leading to r = -.10, p = .08). The effect on test performance was initially significant (r = .09, p = .02) until an extreme outlier was removed (leading to r = .06, p = .06). There was very little evidence of publication bias. Although there was substantial heterogeneity in effect sizes across studies, the tested moderators failed to show robust effects.

The available research literature fails to support single sessions of expressive writing as a treatment for test anxiety. However, other treatments with more supportive evidence are available.