The effectiveness of expressive writing on students’ subjective well-being

Writing can serve as a means for individuals to express their feelings or internal meanings. This study aims to determine whether there the expressive writing has an impact on the subjective wellbeing of students. This study employed a true experimental design using the Pretest Post-test Control Group Design. The participants consisted of 22 new students from the 2023 academic year, selected using convenience sampling techniques. Data were collected the Oxford Happiness Questionnaire (OHQ) and analyzed using the Independent Sample T-Test. The results of the data analysis indicated no significant different in subjective-well being scores between the experimental group (EG) and the control group (CG) (p = 0.700, p > 0.05)). This suggests that expressive writing does not influence the subjective well-being of students. The implementation of the intervention (expressive writing) was carried out when students were taking final semester exams which potentially disrupts their concentration and focus, hindering their ability to fully express their feelings or experiences in writing. Therefore, to ensure the effectiveness of the intervention, it is important to consider the participants’ conditions.