Objective
Divorce is a common stressor that is associated with increased risk for poor long-term physical and mental health. Using an experimental design, the current study examined the impact of expressive writing (EW) on average heart rate (HR), heart rate variability (HRV), and blood pressure (BP) 7.5 months later.
Methods
Participants from a community sample of recently separated adults (N=109) were assigned to one of three conditions, traditional EW, narrative EW, or a control writing condition, and assessed three times over an average of 7.5 months. Each study visit included 27 minutes of physiological assessment; the primary outcomes at each assessment were mean-level HR, HRV, BP scores averaged across six different tasks.
Results
Participants in the traditional EW condition did not significantly differ from control participants in their later HR, HRV, or BP. However, relative to control participants,those in the narrative EW condition had significantly lower HR, B = -3.38, 95% CI [-5.48, -1.23], p = .002, and higher HRV 7.5 months later, B = 0.34, 95% CI [0.15, 0.53], p < .001. These effects were moderately sized, Cohen’s ds = -0.61 and 0.60, respectively, and durable across all task conditions when analyzed in independent models.The writing condition groups did not differ in their later BP.
Conclusions
Narrative EW decreased HR and increased HRV following marital separation, but did not affect BP. We discuss the possible disconnect between psychology and physiology in response to EW, as well as possible future clinical applications following marital separation.