Can virtues enhance the benefits of expressive writing among healthy Chinese? A pilot study

Abstract

Objective: This study aims to explore the relationship between virtues and self-disclosure via a cross-sectional study and an intervention study among Chinese.Methods: In study one, 144 healthy individuals completed the Chinese Virtues Questionnaire (CVQ) and the short version of Jourard Self-Disclosure Questionnaire. In study two, 41 undergraduates voluntarily attended a nine-week intervention. Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS) was adopted as the well-being indicator. They were asked to complete the vitality sub-scale of CVQ and SWLS at week one for obtaining the virtue scores and baseline scores of well-being. After an eight-week intervention, SWLS was completed again to examine the intervention efficacy.Results: Among the three virtues, only vitality had the significant and positive relation with self-disclosure. After eight weeks, the high-vitality group obtained the significant growth of satisfaction with life. The change degree of satisfaction among high vitality individuals was significantly higher than the low vitality group.Conclusion: Prescreening of individual vitality may be helpful for identifying the sensitive targets of expressive writing intervention. However, considering that this is a preliminary study, more rigorous randomized controlled trials will be helpful to test this conclusion in future.