Expressive Journaling and Self-Reported Coping Scores Among Senior High School Students: A Nonrandomized Pretest–Posttest Study
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.33755/jkk.v12i4.1061Keywords:
coping strategies, expressive journaling, university entrance examinationsAbstract
Background: Academic transitions can increase stress among Grade 12 students. Expressive journaling offers a low-cost reflection activity, yet its association with specific coping domains requires careful measurement because adaptive and avoidant coping are not interchangeable.
Objective: To describe pretest–posttest changes in aggregate Brief COPE scores among students assigned nonrandomly to expressive journaling and comparison groups.
Methods: This nonequivalent-group quasi-experimental study analyzed 81 Grade 12 students at SMAN 8 Jambi (journaling n = 41; comparison n = 40). Students completed a reported 28-item Brief COPE adaptation before and after three weekly 20-minute journaling sessions. The available statistical outputs comprised separate within-group Wilcoxon signed-rank tests; a controlled between-group change estimate was not available.
Results: Mean scores rose from 84.27 (SD 7.46) to 89.49 (SD 5.47) in the journaling group (within-group p < 0.001), and from 82.10 (reported SD 1.76) to 82.83 (SD 5.99) in the comparison group (p = 0.782). The descriptive difference between mean changes was 4.49 points, without a verified inferential comparison. The reported comparison-group baseline SD requires correction against original data.
Conclusion: The journaling group exhibited an increase in aggregate coping-item scores after three sessions. Nonrandomized allocation, lack of a valid direct group contrast, and unverified adaptive-coping cutoffs prohibit concluding that the intervention improved adaptive coping. A controlled analysis of validated Brief COPE domains is recommended.
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