A new study tested whether a simple writing exercise could improve the mental health and academic experience of first-year college students from minoritized racial and ethnic backgrounds in STEM fields. The small randomized trial involved 69 students who were assigned to either a values affirmation writing task or a neutral writing task. Over time, students who did the values affirmation exercise reported less anxiety compared to those who did the neutral writing. They also maintained a stronger sense of belonging, while belonging decreased in the control group. Both groups experienced less loneliness over time. The study did not report any safety concerns or side effects. Because this was a small, early-stage trial, the results are promising but not definitive. The findings suggest that brief, low-cost psychological interventions may help support underrepresented students in STEM, but more research is needed to confirm the effects and understand how they work.
Values affirmation writing reduced anxiety in first-year minoritized STEM students compared to neutral writing in an RCTWriting Exercise Eases Anxiety in Minority STEM Students
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This randomized controlled trial involved 69 first-year students from minoritized racial and ethnic backgrounds in STEM fields. The intervention was values affirmation writing, and the comparator was neutral writing. The primary outcomes assessed were anxiety, belonging, loneliness, and academic performance measured as grade point averages. Secondary outcomes included mental and social health outcomes.
Regarding anxiety, there was a significant interaction between time and condition. Values affirmation participants experienced a decrease in anxiety over time relative to control participants. For belonging, a significant interaction between time and condition was observed. Neutral writing control condition participants experienced a decrease in belonging compared to the values affirmation intervention condition. Loneliness showed a significant main effect of time, with a decrease over time in loneliness for both conditions.
Safety data were not reported for adverse events, serious adverse events, discontinuations, or tolerability. The study did not report specific p-values or confidence intervals for the main results. Academic performance and grade point averages were listed as primary outcomes but specific numerical results for these metrics were not provided in the available data. The study population was limited to first-year students from minoritized racial and ethnic backgrounds in STEM fields.
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