Below you’ll find a roundup of all the scientific studies on journaling I dug up over the last twenty or so years. To save you time, there’s a key takeaway for each!
2024
2023
2022
Efficacy of journaling in the management of mental illness: a systematic review and meta-analysis
Key Takeaway: While journaling shows promise as a non-pharmacological intervention for mental health, the existing evidence is diverse and methodologically limited. A meta-analysis of 20 randomized control trials revealed a 5% greater reduction in patient health measures with journaling, indicating a small to moderate benefit.
Key Takeaway: Implementing weekly journaling in a medical pharmacology course significantly benefits students, aiding in physical and mental health improvement, task organization, goal achievement, and self-reflection. The positive feedback underscores journaling's role in reducing stress and anxiety, particularly crucial during the pandemic.
Key Takeaway: The online journaling platform, Pandemic Journaling Project (PJP) revealed how individuals worldwide used journaling to express mental well-being and distress during the pandemic. The essays highlight the triple value of online journaling as a research method, therapeutic strategy, and tool for advancing social justice, signaling promising avenues for psychotherapeutic intervention and collaborative ethnography in times of radical social change.
2021
2020
2019
2018
Key Takeaway: In this 12-week study, a Web-based Positive Affect Journaling (PAJ) intervention was found to significantly decrease mental distress and enhance well-being among 70 adults with various medical conditions and elevated anxiety symptoms compared to usual care.
2015
Key Takeaway: In a study involving 116 healthy adults, expressive writing about stressful events did not show significant overall effects on anxiety, depressive symptoms, or physical symptoms. However, emotional expressiveness emerged as a crucial moderator, indicating that within the expressive writing group, participants high in expressiveness experienced a significant reduction in anxiety at the three-month follow-up, while those low in expressiveness showed a significant increase in anxiety. These results support the matching hypothesis, suggesting that tailoring interventions to individuals' natural coping styles is beneficial, and imply that expressive writing may not be suitable for those who typically avoid emotional expression.
2006
Journal Writing as a Teaching Technique to Promote Reflection
Key Takeaway: This study discusses the role of journal writing as a pedagogic technique to promote reflection among athletic training students. It emphasizes the importance of reflection in the educational journey, highlighting that expert practitioners use reflection to enhance decision-making abilities. The study suggests that while various strategies exist to foster reflection, journal writing stands out as an effective method. Research findings underscore its qualitative benefits, such as transforming students from passive to active learners, promoting self-directed learning, and facilitating critical thought. The article encourages educators to define clear expectations, select appropriate topics, and engage in one-on-one dialogues to maximize the effectiveness of journal writing in athletic training education.
2005
Journaling; an active learning technique
Key Takeaway: Journaling is a method frequently discussed in nursing literature and educational literature as an active learning technique that is meant to enhance reflective practice. Reflective practice is a means of self-examination that involves looking back over what has happened in practice in an effort to improve, or encourage professional growth. Some of the benefits of reflective practice include discovering meaning, making connections between experiences and the classroom, instilling values of the profession, gaining the perspective of others, reflection on professional roles, and development of critical thinking. A review of theory and research is discussed, as well as suggestions for implementation of journaling into coursework.