Global Ratings of Essays About Trauma: Development of the GREAT Code, and Correlations with Physical and Mental Health Outcomes

Past research has demonstrated in a variety of contexts that writing about emotional topics can benefit physical health and general well being. Most of this prior research has used the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count program (LIWC, Pennebaker & Francis, 1996), but not global essay ratings, to assess what aspects of written essays might be associated with such benefits. Yet scoring rubrics are commonly used in the field of education to score global aspects of student writing. The current study used a sub-sample of essays from a larger research project on trauma, writing and health to develop a global rating rubric for essays about trauma based on rubrics used in education. The resulting rubric was reliably applied to participants’ essays about trauma. Global ratings of essay organization were correlated with improvements in physical and mental health measures at a Bridget Klest, MA, and Jennifer J. Freyd, PhD, are affiliated with Department of Psychology, University of Oregon. Address correspondence to: Bridget Klest, MA, Department of Psychology, 1227 University of Oregon, Eugene, OR 97403-1227 (Email [email protected]). This research was supported by the Northwest Health Foundation, Grant Number 2001-255 Child Abuse and Health: An Intervention (Freyd, PI). The manuscript preparation was also supported in part by the Trauma and Oppression Research Fund at the University of Oregon Foundation. The authors are grateful to the numerous contributions to this research made by Ann Yee, James Pennebaker, and members of the Freyd Dynamics Lab at the University of Oregon. Journal of Psychological Trauma, Vol. 6(1) 2007 Available online at http://jpsyt.haworthpress.com © 2007 by The Haworth Press, Inc. All rights reserved. doi:10.1300/J513v06n01_01 1 six-month follow-up. Properties of the rubric and correlations with outcome measures are discussed. doi:10.1300/J513v06n01_01 [Article copies available for a fee from The Haworth Document Delivery Service: 1-800-HAWORTH. E-mail address: Website: © 2007 by The Haworth Press, Inc. All rights reserved.]