nctId: NCT06276725 id: 23-606 briefTitle: Writing Wrongs: Expressive Writing for Microaggressions acronym: WW overallStatus: RECRUITING date: 2024-03-18 date: 2024-12-01 date: 2025-04-01 date: 2024-02-26 date: 2024-03-25 name: Auburn University class: OTHER name: Medical University of South Carolina briefSummary: Racial and ethnic based stressors, such as microaggressions, are pervasive, distressing, and result in lasting negative repercussions for minoritized students at predominantly white institutions (PWIs). These racial and ethnic based stressors are experienced in addition to the universally experienced stressors of higher education. Negative repercussions of microaggressions include increased drop out or transfer rates, distress, fatigue resulting in decreased academic performance, and depression and posttraumatic stress symptoms. Expressive writing (EW) may be a scalable intervention for addressing the negative repercussions resulting from microaggressions experienced by minoritized students at PWIs. Previous research suggests that EW for stressful life events results in benefits such as reduced depression and posttraumatic stress symptoms, improved coping strategies, and reduced activity restriction. Despite such benefits, EW was not designed to specifically address microaggressions in a minoritized student population. Informed by the ADAPT-ITT model, our research group conducted a pilot study with similar procedures. This pilot study demonstrated the acceptability of an adapted version of the EW intervention titled Writing Wrongs (WW), as well as recommended future modifications for WW. In the current study we aim to conduct a randomized-controlled trial to establish the efficacy of WW in alleviating clinical symptoms. We hypothesize that WW will improve symptoms of racial and discriminatory trauma and symptoms of depression, anxiety, and posttraumatic stress over time and compared to an assessment-only condition. We will conduct exploratory analyses to examine short-term changes in affect within and across sessions and across conditions. We will recruit minoritized students enrolled at a PWI. Participants will complete a pre-intervention assessment prior to being randomized into the two conditions. Participants in the intervention condition will engage in three sessions of WW and complete measures of clinical symptoms across multiple time points (i.e., pre-intervention, immediately after the final writing session, one week after the final session). Participants in the assessment-only condition will be administered the same measures at the same timepoints and given access to the WW after completing the study. If found to be efficacious, WW has the potential to be widely disseminated to minoritized college students who experience microaggressions. conditions: Posttraumatic Stress Disorder conditions: Discriminatory Stress conditions: Microaggression studyType: INTERVENTIONAL phases: NA allocation: RANDOMIZED interventionModel: PARALLEL interventionModelDescription: After consenting to participate in the study, participants will be randomized in a 1:1 manner into either the Writing Wrongs Intervention or the Assessment Control condition. All participants will complete a total of five online study sessions including a pre-intervention assessment, three intervention or assessment only sessions, and a one-week follow-up assessment . primaryPurpose: TREATMENT masking: NONE count: 70 type: ESTIMATED name: Writing Wrongs measure: Racial and Discriminatory Trauma measure: Daily Racial and Discrimination Trauma measure: Depression measure: Anxiety measure: Stress measure: Posttraumatic Stress measure: Daily Depression measure: Daily Anxiety measure: Daily Posttraumatic Stress measure: Negative Affect measure: Positive Affect measure: Acceptability of Writing Wrongs sex: ALL minimumAge: 18 Years stdAges: ADULT stdAges: OLDER_ADULT facility: Auburn University status: RECRUITING city: Auburn state: Alabama zip: 368849 country: United States name: Cassidy M Brydon, MS role: CONTACT phone: 954-591-5261 email: cmb0106@auburn.edu name: Tracy K Witte, PhD role: CONTACT phone: 334-844-6465 email: tracy.witte@auburn.edu lat: 32.60986 lon: -85.48078 hasResults: False