a Department of Communication , University of Minnesota-Duluth.
b College of Education , University of Washington.
Health Commun. 2018 Jul;33(7):824-832. doi: 10.1080/10410236.2017.1315677. Epub 2017 May 3.
Spousal cancer caregivers' emotional and relational health can become compromised over time due to ongoing challenges related to the cancer experience. This warrants a call for the assessment of interventions aimed at improving aspects of caregiver well-being. The current study employed a randomized controlled trial to determine whether emotional disclosure via the use of expressive writing improved spousal cancer caregivers' perceived caregiver burden, stress, and depression. Participants (N = 64) were assigned to one of the two disclosure conditions: expressive disclosure or benefit finding-or to a time-management control condition. Participants completed three at-home writing sessions at one-week intervals. Results indicated that written forms of emotional disclosure might improve burden, stress, and depression contingent on writing condition. Specifically, both forms of emotional disclosure outperformed the control condition in reducing caregivers' depression. The control condition outperformed treatments in reducing caregiver stress. Finally, posttest caregiver burden was significantly lower than pretest burden across all writing conditions. This trial was registered with clinicaltrials.gov, ID: NCT02339870.
配偶癌症照顾者的情绪和关系健康可能会随着时间的推移而受到影响，因为癌症经历会带来持续的挑战。这就需要对旨在改善照顾者幸福感的干预措施进行评估。本研究采用随机对照试验来确定通过表达性写作来进行情绪宣泄是否会改善配偶癌症照顾者的照顾者负担、压力和抑郁感。参与者（N=64）被分配到以下两种披露条件之一：表达性披露或收益发现，或时间管理对照组。参与者在一周的间隔内完成了三次在家写作的任务。结果表明，书面形式的情绪宣泄可能会根据写作条件来改善负担、压力和抑郁。具体来说，两种形式的情绪宣泄都比对照组更能降低照顾者的抑郁感。对照组在降低照顾者压力方面优于治疗组。最后，所有写作条件下的后测照顾者负担都显著低于前测负担。该试验已在 clinicaltrials.gov 上注册，编号为 NCT02339870。
