Writing the Woes Away!

An anxiety intervention for high-achieving students

Amanda Neuber, Temple UniversityRachel Efstathion, University of South

Florida

Free Write Exercise Why did you come to

NACADA? What have you learned

since you got to NACADA? How does your role as an

academic advisor impact your identity?

What are the rewards of being an academic advisor? What are the challenges?

How did that make you feel??

What is a High-Achieving Student? The good, the bad, and the ugly Working definition:

A person in college with a higher than average GPA compared to their peers who is involved in college activities, leadership, or research and has a track record of accomplishments. (Kotinek, Sindt, Neuber, 2010)

Background & Rationale

Background Research

PSYCHOLOGY Pennebaker’s Expressive Writing

Intervention

ENGLISH Elbow’s Reflection Based Teaching Style

EDUCATION Empirical research on Gifted and High-

Achieving students is limited…

Methodology

1. Selection2. Observation at every class

meeting1. Confidential free writing

exercise - 10 minutes3. Online student blog entries

throughout the semester

Analysis: Coding

1. Prestige/success2. Asking for help3. Taking risks4. Handling emotion

Stress Anxiety Depression

5. Specific comments about free writing

Females found FW to be stress relieving

“One of the main goals in my freewriting was definitely stress. Many different forms of stress, but stress nonetheless. Sometimes it was about emotional stress, sometimes it was about school related stress, and sometimes it was just about both stresses combined. Writing about them definitely made me feel better and it was a place for me to just vent and organize things so I felt a little less stressed.” – Female

“The freewriting exercise worked [as] a stress reliever. Its hard for my [sic] to express my thoughts into words but, when I’m asked to write my feelings, I have no problem.” – Female

“[free writing] was a really nice opportunity thought to kind of purge the week out on paper and I also appreciated it as a bit of a stress relieving exercise. It was nice to be able to write down whatever came to mind, in a stream of consciousness fashion, to be able to get out whatever was bothering me each week and to realize some of the things that I had also accomplished as a sort of a confidence booster.” – Female

Males were able to recognize their feelings when FW “[expressive writing] really helps me get in touch with how I feel and

how I can improve myself. I learn how I truly feel about different things.” – Male

“I appreciate the writing portion of the seminar because it acts as an outlet for my feelings. I feel as though I can open up…to myself…in the writing portion and it helps me to figure out what I’m feeling” – Male

“There clearly seem to be three sets of freewrites contained within my notebook, each representing my emotional state at different points in the semester. I grew as I actually declined once the semester continued, struggling to manage time, but then climbed once I was fully adjusted, and as a result, my journals would be much more focused. I would like to use this freewriting exercise whenever I am undertaking a massively different experience, to track my progress in how I feel and think over time.” – Male

Gender Differences: Male Prestige “Eventually I want to earn my Ph.D in choral

conducting and I want to be a professor at a university who direct a choir which tours the world” —Male

“Provided I keep a high GPA and an active social life I’d consider my first semester at college to be a success. In the long term I’d consider myself a success if I am accepted to medical school and go on to become a doctor, perhaps a radiologist or anesthesiologist.” – Male

Public writing vs. Free writing “It’s relaxing to not have to think about

finding the perfect way to phrase things and to just let it all out. It’s like blogging but with no restrictions. I have a blog and all of my friends follow me so I feel restricted on some things [I write]” – Female

“In high school I was never once allowed to write and [sic] informal/creative essay so this is going against everything I was taught. The fact that I’m using ‘I’ is killing me” – Male

Free Writing helped students open up and share difficulties “The second therapist I went to told me that I was depressed

because I was all alone, and that me not spending time with people was like me trying to escape from a hole using a shovel that only dug down. And also that I was on an island by myself, and that if I didn’t build a bridge over to the rest of the world that I would be depressed forever.” – Female

“Using a freewriting journal may come in handy for me at some point in college because I am not a very open person about what is in my head and have sometimes had problems after I get too much stress built up such as breaking things. Recently I got pissed off after a class and ended up breaking a window because I thought it was plexiglass which it wasn’t.” – Male

FW was helpful, but I won’t continue on my own

“Although this exercise helped me a lot, I am not sure if I would continue it alone. It is time consuming, and when I meditate I do essentially the same thing as free writing, in that they both relax me and help me gather my thoughts and put my problems into perspective.” – Female

“In my English class junior year of high school, similar to this, we had to

create a blog. Most of my entries were either informative or me releasing my stress via blog. It actually helped me out a lot. I was able to easily get rid of my stress. After the class was over, I told myself that I would continue blogging as a way to keep me relaxed. However, I never found the time for it. As much as I would love to tell myself that I would continue [free writing], I know that I probably would not keep up with it” – Female

“I would like to continue with this exercise on my own, but it may not happen as often as would be ideal. This is just because I usually have so much to do and when I have free time I have more fun things I would like to be doing.” – Male

What did we conclude? What have we done since? Handwriting is hard. How can we build off what students

are already doing? Continue to have students blog▪ Allowing them more creative freedom in what

they post and share, not just writing▪ Same platform (Tumblr), Same hashtag

(#tuhfs13)▪ Freshmen like connecting with each other

(duh?) Adding more depth to social media

How can you use Free Writing with your High-Achievers? BEFORE

Having them free write before your advising session / even while they are waiting

DURING Give them 5 minutes in your meeting to

write before they talk AFTER

Give them some prompts to think about after your meeting, and tell them to just write about it.

Encourage more writing

Give them platforms to write other than in the classroom. Honorslounge.com

What are other ways we can release anxiety in our High-Achievers?

ASK THEM DO YOU FEEL STRESSED? What stresses them out? How they relieve

their stress? Pair them up Exercise, yoga, meditation, breathing Getting on a schedule that works for them

Not everyone can work with a color coded time management sheet… BUT…

Listen to what they aren’t saying

QUESTIONS?amanda@temple.edu •

rachele@temple.edu