| Times of transition are particularly stressful for students entering middle school and reform movements continue to address the unique academic and emotional needs of young adolescents. Journal writing is proposed as one possible component of an effective proactive intervention.; Purpose. The purpose of this study was to determine if Pennebaker's journal writing paradigm as applied to young adolescents had effects on sense of coherence (SOC) and middle school adjustment among entering 6th-grade students. In order to achieve this purpose, two research questions were posed: (1) Are differences between adjusted posttest scores on the SOC related to treatment differences? and (2) Are differences between adjusted posttest scores on anxiety, anger and self-concept subscales of the Beck's Youth Inventories (BYI), related to treatment differences?; Method. A quasi-experimental, pretest-posttest design was utilized with forty-nine 6th-grade students randomly assigned to treatment and control groups. The intervention involved 25 minutes of journal writing twice a week for three consecutive weeks. The treatment group was assigned to write about thoughts and feelings related to transitioning to middle school while the control group wrote from commercially made journal prompts. Posttest scores of the treatment and control groups were compared controlling for pretest scores, SES, and gender.; Findings. Students in the treatment group who wrote about thoughts and feelings experienced significantly lower levels of anxiety and demonstrated a trend towards lower anger. There were no significant differences found between the two groups on self-concept and SOC. The findings support the use of journal writing incorporating thoughts and feelings as an intervention to reduce anxiety. While further study is needed, the findings also encourage the use of journal writing to reduce anger. The absence of significant differences in SOC and self-concept may be a result of the length of the treatment and/or the short interval between intervention and posttest. It is also possible that journal writing about thoughts and feelings may not be effective in altering these two variables. |
