Captivation of state university: The impact of expressive writing therapy on students' academic stress and emotions

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Fadli Nugraha, Imelda Hutagalung This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-8677719/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract The objective of this study was to implement expressive writing therapy for a group of students who were preparing for state university entrance exams, given the competitive nature of these exams. The hypothesis was that this therapy would increase positive emotions and reduce negative emotions and academic stress. A pre-test and post-test design with a control group was conducted with a sample of fifty students, who were divided equally into two groups. The treatment was administered in accordance with Pennebaker's systematic approach, and was conducted online over a period of six days. The findings of this study offer substantial evidence to suggest that expressive writing therapy does not effectively mitigate student stress. Nevertheless, the efficacy of expressive writing therapy in enhancing positive emotions and mitigating negative emotions has been demonstrated. In the control group, negative affect and despondency levels exhibited a significant increase. Conversely, within the male treatment group, there was a decline in positive affect and an increase in negative affect. No significant alterations were detected in the female treatment group. In the male control group, only negative affect demonstrated significant alterations, while in the female control group, only workload exhibited significant changes. Introduction It is evident that students who engage in academic pursuits will invariably encounter a certain degree of pressure, as the act of studying is an endeavor to refine their cognitive abilities. However, it is imperative to note that excessive stress and distress arising from this pressure can have deleterious effects on one's well-being. The phenomenon of academic pressure, which has been demonstrated to impact academic performance, increase cognitive load, and reduce self-efficacy, is not exclusive to university students (Ma, 2025 ) which will ultimately have an impact on mental health (Córdova Olivera et al., 2023 ). However, high school students who have a different workload than university students also have the potential to experience academic stress due to physiological and psychological problems (Stromájer et al., 2023 ) homework overload, assessment pressure, and difficulty reconciling academic and personal life (Pérez-Jorge et al., 2025 ) which will ultimately also disrupt their mental health (Kristensen et al., 2023 ). In Indonesia, students enrolled in private schools are typically encouraged or supported in their pursuit of further education at prominent state universities. This encouragement and support are not only intended to enhance the students' personal confidence but also to contribute to the school's overall reputation. Despite the absence of formal documentation, this activity or regulation is a competition that is experienced by high school students throughout Indonesia. It is reasonable to assume that students who are required to meet the graduation standards at state universities will increase their daily study load by enrolling in private tutoring outside of school. This will allow them to improve their academic abilities for the state university entrance exams of their dreams. In the months preceding the state university entrance exams, a significant number of schools administer their own internal exams, which serve as preparatory measures for the aforementioned state university entrance exams. Private tutoring has been a long-standing practice in numerous countries, with a history of supporting academic endeavors (Walker & Zhang, 2024 ). Institutions of higher education typically administer monthly simulations of the state university entrance examination. These simulations are designed to assist students in evaluating their performance in relation to the established standards of the institution and to facilitate their success in achieving a passing grade on the actual examination. Consequently, students must augment their academic workload on a daily basis to ensure optimal performance in their examinations (Fauzan & Mukiman, 2019 ). An excess of study load has been demonstrated to increase stress and high memory usage, thus impacting academic performance (Almarzouki, 2024 ). The increase in academic obligations may result in the phenomenon of overstudy. This phenomenon can be conceptualized as a duality, wherein one aspect is associated with enhanced study engagement, while the other is linked to the development of study addiction (Loscalzo, 2021 ), whereas studyholism is closely related to obsessive-compulsive personality disorder (Loscalzo & Giannini, 2018 ). While academic achievement is undoubtedly a significant component of a student's overall development, it is not the sole factor. The cultivation of students' well-being and academic engagement is equally crucial (Puiu et al., 2024 ) Subjective well-being has been demonstrated to be related to that of students, Balance between life domains, Effort-achievement ratio, Stress levels, Resilience, Combination of well-being “types”, and Support facilities in educational context (Douwes et al., 2023 ). Consequently, the primary focus should be on the reduction of overstudy and the consistent enhancement of students' well-being, in order to avert the development of studyholism among the Indonesian student population (Nugraha & Loscalzo, 2024 ). The stress and negative emotions students experience daily need to be reduced with relevant psychological therapy. There are many therapies available to reduce stress (Ghasemi et al., 2024 ) One therapy that can be done on students is expressive writing (Jagiello et al., 2024 ) Written expression will be relevant and easy for students to do because it is in an academic context, and expressing emotions in written form has long been reviewed in psychology studies (Pennebaker, 2017 ) and is also a therapeutic process (Pennebaker, 1997 ). The act of articulating emotions through written expression has been demonstrated to induce a state of relaxation, thereby facilitating the management or reduction of stress experienced by students. When this is controlled and implemented daily, it has the potential to reduce the stress or academic burden experienced by students (Iqra, 2024 ). This phenomenon is particularly salient among students who dedicate themselves to studying for the state university entrance exams, which often extend from morning to night. Therefore, the objective of this study is to provide expressive writing therapy to students preparing to enter state universities in Indonesia. Expressive writing has been demonstrated to be an effective method for reducing and overcoming various forms of stress, including academic stress, depression, and symptoms of post-traumatic stress. The duration of writing therapy is approximately 15 minutes per day, for a total of four days, which is manageable for students (Savera et al., 2022 ). It is hypothesized that (H1) expressive writing therapy exerts an influence on the academic stress experienced by students preparing to take the entrance exam for a state university. Emotions represent a pivotal aspect of expressive writing treatment, in addition to stress. Expressive writing has been demonstrated to enhance emotional intelligence (Castillo & Fischer, 2017 ) and mindfulness (Poon & Danoff-Burg, 2011 ) because elevated emotional intelligence and mindfulness levels are associated with reduced academic stress (Zhang et al., 2024 ). Expressive writing for students has been demonstrated to yield positive outcomes in the context of emotional disorders education, as it effectively assists students in the monitoring and enhancement of their social interactions and conduct (Lara, 2020 ). Besides reducing negative emotions, expressive writing can also improve emotional regulation (Salma et al., 2024 ). Therefore, the present study proposes the hypothesis (H2) that expressive writing therapy exerts an influence on the enhancement of positive emotions in students, and (H3) that expressive writing therapy exerts an influence on the reduction of negative emotions in students). Methods Procedure This research has received ethical approval from the Faculty of Psychology at Medan Area University. This study used a pretest and posttest design with a control group (Capili & Anastasi, 2024 ). Each participant signed an informed consent form at the outset, and their parents were informed that the treatment would not interfere with their learning. Participants were randomly assigned to treatment and control groups, ensuring that they were anonymous to avoid response bias. The treatment group was instructed on the treatment procedures and the instructions. The control group was asked to respond according to the scale provided during the pre-test and post-test. Participants were gathered online through a social media platform, forming group A (treatment group) and group B (control group). Each participant in the group agreed not to communicate with other participants during the treatment. Each participant was asked to focus on studying at school and private tutoring after school to achieve good grades on the state university entrance exam. Therefore, communication, questions and answers, data collection, and treatment were conducted online because students do not have a long break. Students in their final year of high school do not have much time because after school in the afternoon, they continue private tutoring until an average of 8 p.m. Therefore, the treatment was conducted after they returned home in the evening. The expressive writing treatment was administered over six days, and we began communicating with the treatment group at 9 p.m. every night to guide participants in their expressive writing. On the first day, participants in both the treatment and control groups were asked to complete a pretest. This is in line with the classic paradigm from Pennebaker & Beall ( 1986 ) then participants in the treatment group were asked to write expressively for 15–20 minutes for 6 consecutive days, and were asked to explore their “deepest thoughts and feelings” about personal and emotional topics related to academic workload that were important to them and their parents without worrying about grammar or punctuation. After participants finished writing, they shared clear photo evidence of their writing on our personal social media platforms so that it could not be read or seen by other participants. This was repeated for six consecutive days, using a theme we provided to guide their writing each day. Then, on the final day, participants were asked to complete the provided posttest. Participant Respondents were recruited from a private school in Medan, which has a tradition of high graduation rates and admission to state universities. Every final-year student at the school regularly takes monthly tryouts provided by the school. Therefore, in the months leading up to the opening of the state university entrance exam, students have been preparing by studying daily. All final-year students took the tryouts (n = 315), but overall, only a small number of participants were willing to participate in the treatment (n = 34) and control (n = 34) groups. The average age was 17 years, and the majority were female (60%). Table 1 Respondent demographics Age PT TG (%) CG (%) Sex Male 11 (44%) 9 (36%) Female 14 (56%) 16 (64%) Tutoring No 2 (8%) 3 (12%) Yes 23 (92%) 22 (88%) Tutoring day 2 Day 4 (16%) 3 (12%) 3 Day 9 (36%) 9 (36%) 5 Day 3 (12%) 1 (4%) 6 Day 2 (8%) 1 (4%) 7 Day 1 (4%) 2 (8%) Missing 6 (24%) 9 (36%) Mean (SD) PT 4.05 Hour (1.25) 3.48 Hour (1.01) Mean 17 Years 4.05 Hour SD 0.58 1.25 Minimum 16.1 Years 3 Hour Maximum 17.9 Years 7 Hour *PT= Private tutoring, TG= Treatment, Group, CT= Control group Respondents were recruited from a private school in Medan, which has a tradition of high graduation rates and admission to state universities. Every final-year student at the school regularly takes monthly tryouts provided by the school. Therefore, in the months leading up to the opening of the state university entrance exam, students have been preparing by studying daily. All final-year students took the tryouts (n = 315), but overall, only a small number of participants were willing to participate in the treatment (n = 34) and control (n = 34) groups. The average age was 17 years, and the majority were female (60%). The majority (90%) participated in private tutoring outside of school, spending an average of four hours a day studying. Students who agreed were then randomly assigned to the treatment (n = 25) and control (n = 25) groups. Nine students from each group did not respond to the pretest without any reason and were therefore excluded from the study. Females constituted the majority in both the experimental and control groups, although males outnumbered males in the experimental group. Nearly all respondents participated in private tutoring outside of school. The treatment group had 30 minutes more private tutoring time than the control group. Both the treatment and control groups attended private tutoring two to five days per week. Measurement We collected Indonesian version of subjective well-being data from Akhtar ( 2019 ) to assess positive and negative emotions and balance. This instrument consists of 20 items, with 10 positive emotion items (α = .86) and 10 negative emotion items (α = .85). On the PANAS Scale, respondents are asked to indicate how they agree with statements on a five-point Likert scale ranging from 1–5, ranging from "almost never" to "almost all the time." This instrument has good item and dimension consistency. Academic stress data were collected from the Educational Stress Scale for Adolescents (ESSA) from Sun et al., ( 2011 ), This questionnaire under validation includes 16 items/questions. Each question included a 5-point Likert-type scale (ranging from 1 = strongly disagree to 5 = strongly agree). The participants’ responses to the questions added up to a total score; moreover, 5 different factors resulted from the statistical analysis of their responses to the following: Pressure from study, Workload, Worry about grades, Self-expectation, and Despondency. Higher scores indicate greater stress. The questionnaire has good internal consistency, with Cronbach’s α = 0.82 for the total scale and α = 0.79, α = 0.73, α = 0.69, α = 0.65, and α = 0.64 for the five factors, separately. The scale is adjusted to the translation machine which produces the same results as human translation (Polakova & Klimova, 2023 ; Sebo & De Lucia, 2024 ) which was then conducted cognitive interviews with five students to improve their validity, reliability, and clarity on each item (Willis & Artino, 2013 ). Analysis Data was collected online (Gform) from Google, which was provided during the pretest and posttest. The collected data will be tabulated (Excel) from Microsoft to be adjusted for analysis. The data will be analyzed using a paired sample t-test with the help of Jeffrey's Amazing Statistics Program 0.95.4 version. This analysis uses statistical parameters of 95% confidence intervals and uses Shapiro-Wilk to analyze data distribution. Meanwhile, effect sizes use Cohen's d, Cohen classified effect sizes as small (d = 0.2), medium (d = 0.5), large (d = 0.8), very large (d = 1.3) (Sullivan & Feinn, 2012 ). Results Based on the results of the analysis, it is known that of the two variables with eight dimensions analyzed, there is a worry about grade dimension that is not normal in the treatment group and a despondency dimension in the control group. In the treatment group, it was found that there were 3 dimensions that experienced significant changes, namely positive affect (p = .009, t = -2.863, 95% CI [-.991, − .144]), negative affect (p = .016, t = 2.598, 95% CI [.097, .933]), and balance affect (p = .003, t = -3.251, 95% CI [-1.077, − .212]), while in the control group there were 2 dimensions that experienced significant changes, namely the negative dimension (p = .017, t = -2.562, 95% CI [-.512, .171]) and despondency (p = .016, t = -2.585, 95% CI [-.517, .123]). Table 2 All paired samples t-test Pre-test Post-test t df p d SE Treatment group Positive Affect - Positive Affect -2.863 24 .009 − .573 .220 Negative Affect - Negative Affect 2.598 24 .016 .520 .187 Balance Affect - Balance Affect -3.251 24 .003 − .650 .231 Self-Expectation - Self-Expectation 1.413 24 .170 .283 .225 Workload - Workload -0.693 24 .495 − .139 .159 Despondency - Despondency 0.080 24 .937 .016 .194 Pressure From Study - Pressure From Study -1.464 24 .156 − .293 .140 Worry About Grades - Worry About Grades -0.261 24 .796 − .052 .199 Control group Positive Affect - Positive Affect -0.221 24 .827 − .044 .172 Negative Affect - Negative Affect -2.562 24 .017 − .512 .171 Balance Affect - Balance Affect 1.968 24 .061 .394 .188 Self-Expectation - Self-Expectation -1.270 24 .216 − .254 .135 Workload - Workload 1.986 24 .059 .397 .174 Despondency - Despondency -2.585 24 .016 − .517 .123 Pressure From Study - Pressure From Study -0.062 24 .951 − .012 .200 Worry About Grades - Worry About Grades -0.485 24 .632 − .097 .107 *d= Cohen's d, SE= Standard Error of Cohen's d Based on the results of this analysis, it can also be explained that the highest effect size occurred in the dimensions of balance affect (d = − .650, SE = .231), positive affect (d = − .573, SE = .220), and negative affect (d = .520, SE = .187) with a medium category in the treatment group. Meanwhile, the highest effect size in the control group occurred in the dimensions of despondency (d = − .517, SE = .123) and negative affect (d = − .512, SE = .171) with a medium category. These results also explain that there were changes between the treatment and control groups in different dimensions except for the negative affect dimension. Table 3 paired samples t-test male and female Male Female Pretest Posttest t df p d SE t df p d SE Treatment group Positive Affect - Positive Affect -2.417 10 .036 − .729 .234 -2017 13 .065 − .539 .322 Negative Affect - Negative Affect 2.666 10 .024 .804 .248 1316 13 .211 .352 .269 Balance Affect - Balance Affect -3.259 10 .009 − .983 .345 -1947 13 .073 − .520 .312 Self-Expectation - Self-Expectation 1.070 10 .310 .323 .382 0.908 13 .381 .243 .278 Workload - Workload 0.382 10 .711 .115 .253 -1170 13 .263 − .313 .215 Despondency - Despondency 0.888 10 .396 .268 .309 -0.618 13 .547 − .165 .256 Pressure From Study - Pressure From Study -1.077 10 .307 − .325 .235 -0.974 13 .348 − .260 .177 Worry About Grades - Worry About Grades -0.134 10 .896 − .040 .320 -0.221 13 .828 − .059 .247 Control group Positive Affect - Positive Affect -1.243 8 .249 − .414 .284 1017 15 .325 .254 .195 Negative Affect - Negative Affect -3.066 8 .015 -1.022 .326 -1050 15 .311 − .262 .193 Balance Affect - Balance Affect 1.700 8 .128 .567 .301 1228 15 .238 .307 .223 Self-Expectation - Self-Expectation -0.503 8 .629 − .168 .250 -1210 15 .245 − .303 .162 Workload - Workload -0.839 8 .426 − .280 .177 3027 15 .008 .757 .266 Despondency - Despondency -2.307 8 .050 − .769 .233 -1414 15 .178 − .354 .133 Pressure From Study - Pressure From Study -0.466 8 .653 − .155 .356 0.324 15 .751 .081 .243 Worry About Grades - Worry About Grades 0.170 8 .870 .057 .191 -0.837 15 .416 − .209 .126 *d= Cohen's d, SE= Standard Error of Cohen's d Analysis of the male treatment group revealed only despondency data not normal distribution, and three not normal distribution dimensions in the female treatment group: self-expectation, workload, and worry about grades. Meanwhile, the male control group revealed not normal distribution despondency and pressure from study data, and all dimensions were normally distributed in the female control group. In the male treatment group, three dimensions showed significant changes: positive affect with medium effect sizes, negative affect with large effect sizes, and balanced affect with large effect sizes. However, there was no significant change in the female treatment group due to the intervention. In the male control group, only negative affect showed significant changes with large effect sizes, while in the female control group, only workload showed significant changes with large effect sizes. Therefore, it can be concluded that the overall changes in the experimental group were due to male respondents. However, the despondency dimension, which was analyzed for all respondents, showed no significant changes in either the male or female control group. Discussion The analysis results for all respondents showed no effect of writing expression therapy on students stressed by overstudy. Similarly, results based on gender also showed no significant changes. However, writing expression therapy did have an effect on increasing positive emotions and decreasing negative emotions. These results echo previous research, where no significant effects of writing conditions were seen on anxiety, depressive symptoms, or physical symptoms. However, emotional expression emerged as a significant moderator of anxiety outcomes. Expressive writing about stressful events may be contraindicated for individuals who typically do not express emotions (Niles et al., 2014 ). Thus, it can be explained that as long as academic pressure persists, stress will persist. The closer the state university entrance exams approach, the more intense the tension students feel. This makes it increasingly difficult to express their emotions in writing. Meanwhile, self-disclosure is crucial in this expressive writing therapy because emotional disclosure elicited greater physiological reactivity and self-reported emotion than neutral writing (Konig et al., 2014 ). However, there is sufficient evidence that writing therapy for all respondents significantly increased positive emotions and decreased negative emotions. This is in line with the research report, which states that the emotional changes that occur from writing therapy are a result of students' anxiety. Therefore, the expression in their writing is indeed a reflection of the negative emotions they have experienced, during the change from normal study patterns to overstudy due to competing for admission to state universities. There is also sufficient evidence that writing therapy increases positive emotions and decreases negative emotions. Even when someone is anxious about an exam and writes about those worries, it is suspected that it can improve test performance in class (Ramirez & Beilock, 2011 ). Likewise, anxiety symptoms are likely to decrease after writing therapy treatment is carried out (Frattaroli et al., 2011 ). Even though it has a medium effect, previous research has provided sufficient evidence to explain that writing therapy has a promising effect on mental health, but it has not been able to determine it (Travagin et al., 2015 ). However, there was sufficient evidence across all respondents in the control group that negative affect and despondency decreased over the six days without expressive writing therapy. This essentially supports our hypothesis that stress and negative emotions can be reduced and positive emotions increased with expressive writing therapy. It also suggests that stress and negative emotions can be increased and positive emotions decreased without expressive writing therapy. Then our results in the treatment group are in line with Lukenda et al., ( 2025 ) which explains that gender differences produce different results, because only males experienced an increase in positive emotions and a decrease in negative emotions, while this did not occur in female respondents. It's not just the difference in emotional intelligence (Fischer et al., 2018 ) and brain function and emotion processes (including perception, reactivity, regulation, and experience) (Whittle et al., 2017 ) however small but significant gender differences in emotion expressions have been reported for adults, with women showing greater emotional expressivity, especially for positive emotions and internalizing negative emotions such as sadness (Chaplin, 2015 ). Daily academic pressure increases internalizing negative emotions in female students. Therefore, limited treatment provided to students fails to balance the emotions they receive or promote positive emotions. Differences in respondent character and context are a concern for failing to reject the first hypothesis, although there are findings that report that there is an effect of writing therapy in reducing stress, such as in the character of university student respondents who provided writing therapy intervention for 7 days with a duration of 10–15 minutes/session and the results of this intervention reduced stress and increased well-being (Mohamed et al., 2023 ). However, this study did not examine university students in the context of exam preparation or academic competition preparation to demonstrate achievement for individual career advancement or to enhance the reputation of the academic institution. This could potentially reduce stress due to the lack of daily pressure. Furthermore, uncontrolled external variables, such as internal and external factors, are also considered. Furthermore, there is a probability of rejecting the null hypothesis if the same effect is observed during the stress period (Lukenda et al., 2025 ). Furthermore, the duration of the expressive writing intervention was also a key factor in this study. The intervention lasted only six days, and there was no evidence that expressive writing had any effect on reducing students' stress due to overstudying to successfully enter a state university. Meanwhile, some studies have shown that writing therapy can be administered for up to a month, with writing sessions lasting 20 minutes per session, to see the effects (Konig et al., 2014 ). Meanwhile, in other studies, it took 3 months to see the effects. (Jensen-Johansen et al., 2013 ). Based on literature findings, in adult cases, the average intervention takes around 20 minutes period in which they are guided by written instructions to engage with a stressful work-specific experience cognitively and emotionally (Lukenda et al., 2024 ). Although there are differences in the respondents' characters, they all experience pressure every day, whether it is eustress or distress. Although there are online interventions related to writing that have a fair degree of success in reducing stress, the writing context is different (see Kishimoto et al., 2025 ; Talbot et al., 2021 ) because there are indeed several differences when interventions are carried out offline or online because they are related to knowledge and processing, emotional and psychological factors, and trust and social dynamics (Grover et al., 2025 ). Most studies show comparable outcomes between face-to-face and online interventions. However, given the heterogeneity of samples and outcomes, it is premature to conclude that online treatments are as effective as face-to-face treatments for all different challenges and populations (Rafieifar et al., 2024 ). However, there are differences in collecting data through print or electronic means. Although electronic data is more efficient, collecting printed data requires more exercise than in electronic surveys (Šmigelskas et al., 2019 ) and more effective (Fang et al., 2021 ). However, the argument for online intervention may be a reason for failing to reject the stress-related hypothesis, given that there are quite a number of uncontrolled variables. CONCLUSION These findings provide sufficient evidence that, in general, expressive writing therapy does not effectively reduce student stress due to overstudy leading up to the opening of the state university entrance selection. In addition, the extant literature suggests that expressive writing therapy exerts a significant impact on the emotional state of students, with a concomitant increase in positive emotions and a decrease in negative emotions, particularly in the period leading up to the state university entrance selection process. Concurrently, within the control group, a substantial shift was observed, characterized by an escalation in negative affect and despondency. However, gender was found to be a significant factor in the outcomes observed. Specifically, an increase in negative affect was noted among male respondents, while female respondents exhibited an increase in workload. These outcomes were attributed to the absence of expressive writing therapy interventions for the female respondents. The findings of this study may be applicable to the phenomenon of overstudy that occurs in the period leading up to the administration of the state university entrance examination. The necessity of periodic testing during midterm and final exams is a crucial consideration that merits further investigation. The study's online-based approach was necessitated by the unavailability of a physical location for data collection and treatment, which was due to the preparations for the state university entrance exam that were underway at the time. A mixed-methods or comparative study is recommended to obtain a better effect size. Declarations Funding The authors disclosed not receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article Ethics statement This research is in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki as an ethical principle or standard norm in the experimental treatment process provided. Ethics Approval This research has received approval committee or the internal review board (IRB) from Faculty of Psychology, Medan Area University. Consent to Publish not applicable Clinical trial number not applicable Authors contribution M. Fadli Nugraha — ideas, annotation, writing and design of the manuscript, planning of the research, application of statistical, mathematical, data collection and analysis, visualization of research results, control over the research. Imelda Hutagalung — data collection, interpersonal communication, reviewing empirical data. Competing interest policy The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. Dual publication Research materials related to tables and figures are not being considered for publication elsewhere. Data Availability Statement The dataset analyzed during the current study is available from the corresponding author on reasonable request. Acknowledgment The author expresses gratitude and specifically extends appreciation to pertinent leaders who were granted authorization to gather data at the educational institution. References Akhtar H. 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Sun J, Dunne MP, Hou Xiang-yu, Xu Ai-qiang. Educational Stress Scale for Adolescents: Development, Validity, and Reliability With Chinese Students. J Psychoeducational Assess. 2011;29(6):534–46. https://doi.org/10.1177/0734282910394976 . Talbot F, Fournier J-S, Hendriks M. Life goal reconstruction for people with chronic health conditions: Feasibility of a brief internet-based writing intervention using a minimally monitored delivery. Internet Interventions. 2021;25:100431. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.invent.2021.100431 . Travagin G, Margola D, Revenson TA. How effective are expressive writing interventions for adolescents? A meta-analytic review. Clin Psychol Rev. 2015;36:42–55. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2015.01.003 . Walker N, Zhang KC. What are the non-academic impacts of private tutoring? Voices from A-level students in UK urban schools. Issues Educational Res. 2024;34(2):760–80. http://www.iier.org.au/iier34/walker.pdf . 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Fadli Nugraha","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAA30lEQVRIiWNgGAWjYJCCDwxsQJL5AOMDIMXDR4QOxhlgLWwJzAYgLWykaGGTAHEJajGXPnywgaHsHoNuG++xyq85djJsDMwPH93Ao8WyLy2xgeFcMYPZMb6027LbkoEOYzM2zsGjxeAMj/kDxrYEBrP7PWa3JbcxA7XwsEkT0GLYANZyjMesWHJbPYlaGD9uO0xYi2UPW2JDwrkEHqAWY2nGbcd52JgJ+MWch/lgw4eyBDmgFsOPP7dV2/OzNz98jNdhICIBGIMgmhlC4lEO1wIDjD8IqB4Fo2AUjIKRCQC+5D8CnfUlDAAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==","orcid":"","institution":"Medan Area University","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"M.","middleName":"Fadli","lastName":"Nugraha","suffix":""},{"id":587823112,"identity":"985ad5d9-a62a-4d5a-9ab6-dc8dbc02c60a","order_by":1,"name":"Imelda Hutagalung","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Medan Area University","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Imelda","middleName":"","lastName":"Hutagalung","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2026-01-23 09:53:42","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-8677719/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-8677719/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":107486599,"identity":"8608cd5e-4056-4ce1-8345-cbc03c8c4fec","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2026-04-22 02:38:27","extension":"pdf","order_by":0,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":516334,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"manuscript.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-8677719/v1/36d22899-90d7-4c5b-9e15-aa4d30a47074.pdf"},{"id":102202722,"identity":"5a5e333c-0e74-4507-a56d-098e036af1f7","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2026-02-09 11:12:58","extension":"docx","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"supplement","size":88851,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"attachment.docx","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-8677719/v1/d4977a977f1359eb7166599d.docx"}],"financialInterests":"No competing interests reported.","formattedTitle":"Captivation of state university: The impact of expressive writing therapy on students' academic stress and emotions","fulltext":[{"header":"Introduction","content":"\u003cp\u003eIt is evident that students who engage in academic pursuits will invariably encounter a certain degree of pressure, as the act of studying is an endeavor to refine their cognitive abilities. However, it is imperative to note that excessive stress and distress arising from this pressure can have deleterious effects on one's well-being. The phenomenon of academic pressure, which has been demonstrated to impact academic performance, increase cognitive load, and reduce self-efficacy, is not exclusive to university students (Ma, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR25\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2025\u003c/span\u003e) which will ultimately have an impact on mental health (C\u0026oacute;rdova Olivera et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR6\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2023\u003c/span\u003e). However, high school students who have a different workload than university students also have the potential to experience academic stress due to physiological and psychological problems (Strom\u0026aacute;jer et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR42\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2023\u003c/span\u003e) homework overload, assessment pressure, and difficulty reconciling academic and personal life (P\u0026eacute;rez-Jorge et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR32\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2025\u003c/span\u003e) which will ultimately also disrupt their mental health (Kristensen et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR19\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2023\u003c/span\u003e).\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eIn Indonesia, students enrolled in private schools are typically encouraged or supported in their pursuit of further education at prominent state universities. This encouragement and support are not only intended to enhance the students' personal confidence but also to contribute to the school's overall reputation. Despite the absence of formal documentation, this activity or regulation is a competition that is experienced by high school students throughout Indonesia. It is reasonable to assume that students who are required to meet the graduation standards at state universities will increase their daily study load by enrolling in private tutoring outside of school. This will allow them to improve their academic abilities for the state university entrance exams of their dreams. In the months preceding the state university entrance exams, a significant number of schools administer their own internal exams, which serve as preparatory measures for the aforementioned state university entrance exams. Private tutoring has been a long-standing practice in numerous countries, with a history of supporting academic endeavors (Walker \u0026amp; Zhang, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR47\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2024\u003c/span\u003e).\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eInstitutions of higher education typically administer monthly simulations of the state university entrance examination. These simulations are designed to assist students in evaluating their performance in relation to the established standards of the institution and to facilitate their success in achieving a passing grade on the actual examination. Consequently, students must augment their academic workload on a daily basis to ensure optimal performance in their examinations (Fauzan \u0026amp; Mukiman, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR9\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2019\u003c/span\u003e). An excess of study load has been demonstrated to increase stress and high memory usage, thus impacting academic performance (Almarzouki, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR2\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2024\u003c/span\u003e). The increase in academic obligations may result in the phenomenon of overstudy. This phenomenon can be conceptualized as a duality, wherein one aspect is associated with enhanced study engagement, while the other is linked to the development of study addiction (Loscalzo, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR21\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2021\u003c/span\u003e), whereas studyholism is closely related to obsessive-compulsive personality disorder (Loscalzo \u0026amp; Giannini, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR22\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2018\u003c/span\u003e).\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eWhile academic achievement is undoubtedly a significant component of a student's overall development, it is not the sole factor. The cultivation of students' well-being and academic engagement is equally crucial (Puiu et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR35\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2024\u003c/span\u003e) Subjective well-being has been demonstrated to be related to that of students, Balance between life domains, Effort-achievement ratio, Stress levels, Resilience, Combination of well-being \u0026ldquo;types\u0026rdquo;, and Support facilities in educational context (Douwes et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR7\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2023\u003c/span\u003e). Consequently, the primary focus should be on the reduction of overstudy and the consistent enhancement of students' well-being, in order to avert the development of studyholism among the Indonesian student population (Nugraha \u0026amp; Loscalzo, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR28\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2024\u003c/span\u003e).\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe stress and negative emotions students experience daily need to be reduced with relevant psychological therapy. There are many therapies available to reduce stress (Ghasemi et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR12\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2024\u003c/span\u003e) One therapy that can be done on students is expressive writing (Jagiello et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR15\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2024\u003c/span\u003e) Written expression will be relevant and easy for students to do because it is in an academic context, and expressing emotions in written form has long been reviewed in psychology studies (Pennebaker, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR30\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2017\u003c/span\u003e) and is also a therapeutic process (Pennebaker, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR29\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e1997\u003c/span\u003e). The act of articulating emotions through written expression has been demonstrated to induce a state of relaxation, thereby facilitating the management or reduction of stress experienced by students. When this is controlled and implemented daily, it has the potential to reduce the stress or academic burden experienced by students (Iqra, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR14\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2024\u003c/span\u003e). This phenomenon is particularly salient among students who dedicate themselves to studying for the state university entrance exams, which often extend from morning to night. Therefore, the objective of this study is to provide expressive writing therapy to students preparing to enter state universities in Indonesia.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eExpressive writing has been demonstrated to be an effective method for reducing and overcoming various forms of stress, including academic stress, depression, and symptoms of post-traumatic stress. The duration of writing therapy is approximately 15 minutes per day, for a total of four days, which is manageable for students (Savera et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR39\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2022\u003c/span\u003e). It is hypothesized that (H1) expressive writing therapy exerts an influence on the academic stress experienced by students preparing to take the entrance exam for a state university.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eEmotions represent a pivotal aspect of expressive writing treatment, in addition to stress. Expressive writing has been demonstrated to enhance emotional intelligence (Castillo \u0026amp; Fischer, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR4\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2017\u003c/span\u003e) and mindfulness (Poon \u0026amp; Danoff-Burg, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR34\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2011\u003c/span\u003e) because elevated emotional intelligence and mindfulness levels are associated with reduced academic stress (Zhang et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR50\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2024\u003c/span\u003e). Expressive writing for students has been demonstrated to yield positive outcomes in the context of emotional disorders education, as it effectively assists students in the monitoring and enhancement of their social interactions and conduct (Lara, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR20\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2020\u003c/span\u003e). Besides reducing negative emotions, expressive writing can also improve emotional regulation (Salma et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR38\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2024\u003c/span\u003e). Therefore, the present study proposes the hypothesis (H2) that expressive writing therapy exerts an influence on the enhancement of positive emotions in students, and (H3) that expressive writing therapy exerts an influence on the reduction of negative emotions in students).\u003c/p\u003e"},{"header":"Methods","content":"\u003cdiv id=\"Sec3\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003eProcedure\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003e This research has received ethical approval from the Faculty of Psychology at Medan Area University. This study used a pretest and posttest design with a control group (Capili \u0026amp; Anastasi, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR3\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2024\u003c/span\u003e). Each participant signed an informed consent form at the outset, and their parents were informed that the treatment would not interfere with their learning. Participants were randomly assigned to treatment and control groups, ensuring that they were anonymous to avoid response bias. The treatment group was instructed on the treatment procedures and the instructions. The control group was asked to respond according to the scale provided during the pre-test and post-test.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e Participants were gathered online through a social media platform, forming group A (treatment group) and group B (control group). Each participant in the group agreed not to communicate with other participants during the treatment. Each participant was asked to focus on studying at school and private tutoring after school to achieve good grades on the state university entrance exam. Therefore, communication, questions and answers, data collection, and treatment were conducted online because students do not have a long break. Students in their final year of high school do not have much time because after school in the afternoon, they continue private tutoring until an average of 8 p.m. Therefore, the treatment was conducted after they returned home in the evening.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e The expressive writing treatment was administered over six days, and we began communicating with the treatment group at 9 p.m. every night to guide participants in their expressive writing. On the first day, participants in both the treatment and control groups were asked to complete a pretest. This is in line with the classic paradigm from Pennebaker \u0026amp; Beall (\u003cspan citationid=\"CR31\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e1986\u003c/span\u003e) then participants in the treatment group were asked to write expressively for 15\u0026ndash;20 minutes for 6 consecutive days, and were asked to explore their \u0026ldquo;deepest thoughts and feelings\u0026rdquo; about personal and emotional topics related to academic workload that were important to them and their parents without worrying about grammar or punctuation.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eAfter participants finished writing, they shared clear photo evidence of their writing on our personal social media platforms so that it could not be read or seen by other participants. This was repeated for six consecutive days, using a theme we provided to guide their writing each day. Then, on the final day, participants were asked to complete the provided posttest.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eParticipant\u003c/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eRespondents were recruited from a private school in Medan, which has a tradition of high graduation rates and admission to state universities. Every final-year student at the school regularly takes monthly tryouts provided by the school. Therefore, in the months leading up to the opening of the state university entrance exam, students have been preparing by studying daily. All final-year students took the tryouts (n\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;315), but overall, only a small number of participants were willing to participate in the treatment (n\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;34) and control (n\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;34) groups. The average age was 17 years, and the majority were female (60%).\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003cdiv class=\"gridtable\"\u003e\u003ctable float=\"Yes\" id=\"Tab1\" border=\"1\"\u003e \u003ccaption language=\"En\"\u003e \u003cdiv class=\"CaptionNumber\"\u003eTable 1\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv class=\"CaptionContent\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eRespondent demographics\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003c/caption\u003e \u003ccolgroup cols=\"5\"\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c1\" colnum=\"1\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c2\" colnum=\"2\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c3\" colnum=\"3\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c4\" colnum=\"4\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c5\" colnum=\"5\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cthead\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/th\u003e \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eAge\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/th\u003e \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003ePT\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/th\u003e \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eTG (%)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/th\u003e \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eCG (%)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/th\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003c/thead\u003e \u003ctbody\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eSex\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eMale\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e11 (44%)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e9 (36%)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eFemale\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e14 (56%)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e16 (64%)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eTutoring\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eNo\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e2 (8%)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e3 (12%)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eYes\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e23 (92%)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e22 (88%)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eTutoring day\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e2 Day\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e4 (16%)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e3 (12%)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e3 Day\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e9 (36%)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e9 (36%)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e5 Day\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e3 (12%)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e1 (4%)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e6 Day\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e2 (8%)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e1 (4%)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e7 Day\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e1 (4%)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e2 (8%)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eMissing\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e6 (24%)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e9 (36%)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eMean (SD) PT\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e4.05 Hour (1.25)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e3.48 Hour (1.01)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eMean\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e17 Years\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e4.05 Hour\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eSD\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.58\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e1.25\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eMinimum\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e16.1 Years\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e3 Hour\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eMaximum\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e17.9 Years\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e7 Hour\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003c/tbody\u003e \u003c/colgroup\u003e \u003ctfoot\u003e \u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd colspan=\"5\"\u003e*PT= Private tutoring, TG= Treatment, Group, CT= Control group\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e \u003c/tfoot\u003e \u003c/table\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eRespondents were recruited from a private school in Medan, which has a tradition of high graduation rates and admission to state universities. Every final-year student at the school regularly takes monthly tryouts provided by the school. Therefore, in the months leading up to the opening of the state university entrance exam, students have been preparing by studying daily. All final-year students took the tryouts (n\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;315), but overall, only a small number of participants were willing to participate in the treatment (n\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;34) and control (n\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;34) groups. The average age was 17 years, and the majority were female (60%).\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe majority (90%) participated in private tutoring outside of school, spending an average of four hours a day studying. Students who agreed were then randomly assigned to the treatment (n\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;25) and control (n\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;25) groups. Nine students from each group did not respond to the pretest without any reason and were therefore excluded from the study.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eFemales constituted the majority in both the experimental and control groups, although males outnumbered males in the experimental group. Nearly all respondents participated in private tutoring outside of school. The treatment group had 30 minutes more private tutoring time than the control group. Both the treatment and control groups attended private tutoring two to five days per week.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eMeasurement\u003c/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWe collected Indonesian version of subjective well-being data from Akhtar (\u003cspan citationid=\"CR1\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2019\u003c/span\u003e) to assess positive and negative emotions and balance. This instrument consists of 20 items, with 10 positive emotion items (α\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;.86) and 10 negative emotion items (α\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;.85). On the PANAS Scale, respondents are asked to indicate how they agree with statements on a five-point Likert scale ranging from 1\u0026ndash;5, ranging from \"almost never\" to \"almost all the time.\" This instrument has good item and dimension consistency.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eAcademic stress data were collected from the Educational Stress Scale for Adolescents (ESSA) from Sun et al., (\u003cspan citationid=\"CR44\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2011\u003c/span\u003e), This questionnaire under validation includes 16 items/questions. Each question included a 5-point Likert-type scale (ranging from 1\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;strongly disagree to 5\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;strongly agree). The participants\u0026rsquo; responses to the questions added up to a total score; moreover, 5 different factors resulted from the statistical analysis of their responses to the following: Pressure from study, Workload, Worry about grades, Self-expectation, and Despondency. Higher scores indicate greater stress. The questionnaire has good internal consistency, with Cronbach\u0026rsquo;s α\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;0.82 for the total scale and α\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;0.79, α\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;0.73, α\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;0.69, α\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;0.65, and α\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;0.64 for the five factors, separately. The scale is adjusted to the translation machine which produces the same results as human translation (Polakova \u0026amp; Klimova, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR33\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2023\u003c/span\u003e; Sebo \u0026amp; De Lucia, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR40\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2024\u003c/span\u003e) which was then conducted cognitive interviews with five students to improve their validity, reliability, and clarity on each item (Willis \u0026amp; Artino, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR49\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2013\u003c/span\u003e).\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eAnalysis\u003c/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eData was collected online (Gform) from Google, which was provided during the pretest and posttest. The collected data will be tabulated (Excel) from Microsoft to be adjusted for analysis. The data will be analyzed using a paired sample t-test with the help of Jeffrey's Amazing Statistics Program 0.95.4 version. This analysis uses statistical parameters of 95% confidence intervals and uses Shapiro-Wilk to analyze data distribution. Meanwhile, effect sizes use Cohen's d, Cohen classified effect sizes as small (d\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;0.2), medium (d\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;0.5), large (d\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;0.8), very large (d\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;1.3) (Sullivan \u0026amp; Feinn, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR43\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2012\u003c/span\u003e).\u003c/p\u003e"},{"header":"Results","content":"\u003cp\u003eBased on the results of the analysis, it is known that of the two variables with eight dimensions analyzed, there is a worry about grade dimension that is not normal in the treatment group and a despondency dimension in the control group. In the treatment group, it was found that there were 3 dimensions that experienced significant changes, namely positive affect (p = .009, t = -2.863, 95% CI [-.991, \u0026minus;\u0026thinsp;.144]), negative affect (p = .016, t\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;2.598, 95% CI [.097, .933]), and balance affect (p = .003, t = -3.251, 95% CI [-1.077, \u0026minus;\u0026thinsp;.212]), while in the control group there were 2 dimensions that experienced significant changes, namely the negative dimension (p = .017, t = -2.562, 95% CI [-.512, .171]) and despondency (p = .016, t = -2.585, 95% CI [-.517, .123]).\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003cdiv class=\"gridtable\"\u003e\u003ctable float=\"Yes\" id=\"Tab2\" border=\"1\"\u003e \u003ccaption language=\"En\"\u003e \u003cdiv class=\"CaptionNumber\"\u003eTable 2\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv class=\"CaptionContent\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eAll paired samples t-test\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003c/caption\u003e \u003ccolgroup cols=\"8\"\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c1\" colnum=\"1\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c2\" colnum=\"2\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c3\" colnum=\"3\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"char\" char=\".\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c4\" colnum=\"4\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"char\" char=\".\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c5\" colnum=\"5\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c6\" colnum=\"6\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c7\" colnum=\"7\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c8\" colnum=\"8\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cthead\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003ePre-test\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/th\u003e \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/th\u003e \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003ePost-test\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/th\u003e \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003et\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/th\u003e \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003edf\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/th\u003e \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e \u003cp\u003ep\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/th\u003e \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e \u003cp\u003ed\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/th\u003e \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c8\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eSE\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/th\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003c/thead\u003e \u003ctbody\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eTreatment group\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c8\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003ePositive Affect\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e-\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003ePositive Affect\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e-2.863\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e24\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.009\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u0026minus;\u0026thinsp;.573\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c8\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.220\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eNegative Affect\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e-\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eNegative Affect\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e2.598\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e24\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.016\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.520\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c8\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.187\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eBalance Affect\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e-\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eBalance Affect\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e-3.251\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e24\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.003\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u0026minus;\u0026thinsp;.650\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c8\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.231\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eSelf-Expectation\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e-\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eSelf-Expectation\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e1.413\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e24\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.170\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.283\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c8\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.225\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eWorkload\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e-\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eWorkload\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e-0.693\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e24\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.495\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u0026minus;\u0026thinsp;.139\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c8\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.159\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eDespondency\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e-\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eDespondency\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.080\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e24\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.937\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.016\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c8\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.194\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003ePressure From Study\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e-\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003ePressure From Study\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e-1.464\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e24\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.156\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u0026minus;\u0026thinsp;.293\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c8\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.140\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eWorry About Grades\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e-\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eWorry About Grades\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e-0.261\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e24\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.796\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u0026minus;\u0026thinsp;.052\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c8\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.199\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eControl group\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c8\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003ePositive Affect\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e-\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003ePositive Affect\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e-0.221\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e24\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.827\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u0026minus;\u0026thinsp;.044\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c8\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.172\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eNegative Affect\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e-\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eNegative Affect\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e-2.562\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e24\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.017\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u0026minus;\u0026thinsp;.512\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c8\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.171\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eBalance Affect\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e-\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eBalance Affect\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e1.968\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e24\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.061\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.394\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c8\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.188\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eSelf-Expectation\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e-\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eSelf-Expectation\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e-1.270\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e24\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.216\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u0026minus;\u0026thinsp;.254\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c8\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.135\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eWorkload\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e-\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eWorkload\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e1.986\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e24\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.059\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.397\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c8\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.174\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eDespondency\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e-\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eDespondency\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e-2.585\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e24\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.016\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u0026minus;\u0026thinsp;.517\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c8\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.123\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003ePressure From Study\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e-\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003ePressure From Study\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e-0.062\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e24\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.951\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u0026minus;\u0026thinsp;.012\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c8\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.200\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eWorry About Grades\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e-\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eWorry About Grades\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e-0.485\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e24\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.632\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u0026minus;\u0026thinsp;.097\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c8\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.107\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003c/tbody\u003e \u003c/colgroup\u003e \u003ctfoot\u003e \u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd colspan=\"8\"\u003e*d= Cohen's d, SE= Standard Error of Cohen's d\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e \u003c/tfoot\u003e \u003c/table\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eBased on the results of this analysis, it can also be explained that the highest effect size occurred in the dimensions of balance affect (d\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;\u0026minus;\u0026thinsp;.650, SE = .231), positive affect (d\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;\u0026minus;\u0026thinsp;.573, SE = .220), and negative affect (d = .520, SE = .187) with a medium category in the treatment group. Meanwhile, the highest effect size in the control group occurred in the dimensions of despondency (d\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;\u0026minus;\u0026thinsp;.517, SE = .123) and negative affect (d\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;\u0026minus;\u0026thinsp;.512, SE = .171) with a medium category. These results also explain that there were changes between the treatment and control groups in different dimensions except for the negative affect dimension.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003cdiv class=\"gridtable\"\u003e\u003ctable float=\"Yes\" id=\"Tab3\" border=\"1\"\u003e \u003ccaption language=\"En\"\u003e \u003cdiv class=\"CaptionNumber\"\u003eTable 3\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv class=\"CaptionContent\"\u003e \u003cp\u003epaired samples t-test male and female\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003c/caption\u003e \u003ccolgroup cols=\"13\"\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c1\" colnum=\"1\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c2\" colnum=\"2\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c3\" colnum=\"3\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c4\" colnum=\"4\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c5\" colnum=\"5\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c6\" colnum=\"6\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c7\" colnum=\"7\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c8\" colnum=\"8\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c9\" colnum=\"9\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c10\" colnum=\"10\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c11\" colnum=\"11\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c12\" colnum=\"12\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c13\" colnum=\"13\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cthead\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/th\u003e \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/th\u003e \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/th\u003e \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eMale\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/th\u003e \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/th\u003e \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/th\u003e \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/th\u003e \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c8\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/th\u003e \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c9\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eFemale\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/th\u003e \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c10\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/th\u003e \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c11\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/th\u003e \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c12\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/th\u003e \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c13\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/th\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003c/thead\u003e \u003ctbody\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003ePretest\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003ePosttest\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003et\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003edf\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e \u003cp\u003ep\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e \u003cp\u003ed\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c8\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eSE\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c9\"\u003e \u003cp\u003et\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c10\"\u003e \u003cp\u003edf\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c11\"\u003e \u003cp\u003ep\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c12\"\u003e \u003cp\u003ed\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c13\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eSE\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eTreatment group\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c8\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c9\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c10\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c11\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c12\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c13\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003ePositive Affect\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e-\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003ePositive Affect\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e-2.417\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e10\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.036\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u0026minus;\u0026thinsp;.729\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c8\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.234\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c9\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e-2017\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c10\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e13\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c11\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.065\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c12\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u0026minus;\u0026thinsp;.539\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c13\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.322\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eNegative Affect\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e-\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eNegative Affect\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e2.666\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e10\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.024\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.804\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c8\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.248\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c9\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e1316\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c10\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e13\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c11\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.211\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c12\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.352\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c13\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.269\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eBalance Affect\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e-\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eBalance Affect\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e-3.259\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e10\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.009\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u0026minus;\u0026thinsp;.983\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c8\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.345\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c9\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e-1947\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c10\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e13\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c11\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.073\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c12\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u0026minus;\u0026thinsp;.520\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c13\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.312\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eSelf-Expectation\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e-\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eSelf-Expectation\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e1.070\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e10\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.310\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.323\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c8\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.382\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c9\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.908\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c10\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e13\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c11\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.381\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c12\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.243\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c13\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.278\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eWorkload\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e-\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eWorkload\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.382\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e10\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.711\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.115\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c8\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.253\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c9\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e-1170\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c10\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e13\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c11\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.263\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c12\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u0026minus;\u0026thinsp;.313\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c13\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.215\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eDespondency\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e-\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eDespondency\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.888\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e10\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.396\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.268\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c8\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.309\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c9\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e-0.618\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c10\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e13\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c11\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.547\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c12\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u0026minus;\u0026thinsp;.165\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c13\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.256\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003ePressure From Study\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e-\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003ePressure From Study\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e-1.077\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e10\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.307\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u0026minus;\u0026thinsp;.325\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c8\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.235\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c9\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e-0.974\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c10\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e13\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c11\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.348\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c12\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u0026minus;\u0026thinsp;.260\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c13\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.177\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eWorry About Grades\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e-\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eWorry About Grades\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e-0.134\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e10\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.896\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u0026minus;\u0026thinsp;.040\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c8\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.320\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c9\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e-0.221\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c10\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e13\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c11\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.828\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c12\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u0026minus;\u0026thinsp;.059\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c13\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.247\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eControl group\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c8\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c9\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c10\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c11\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c12\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c13\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003ePositive Affect\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e-\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003ePositive Affect\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e-1.243\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e8\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.249\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u0026minus;\u0026thinsp;.414\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c8\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.284\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c9\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e1017\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c10\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e15\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c11\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.325\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c12\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.254\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c13\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.195\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eNegative Affect\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e-\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eNegative Affect\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e-3.066\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e8\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.015\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e-1.022\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c8\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.326\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c9\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e-1050\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c10\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e15\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c11\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.311\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c12\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u0026minus;\u0026thinsp;.262\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c13\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.193\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eBalance Affect\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e-\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eBalance Affect\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e1.700\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e8\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.128\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.567\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c8\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.301\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c9\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e1228\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c10\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e15\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c11\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.238\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c12\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.307\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c13\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.223\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eSelf-Expectation\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e-\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eSelf-Expectation\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e-0.503\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e8\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.629\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u0026minus;\u0026thinsp;.168\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c8\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.250\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c9\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e-1210\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c10\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e15\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c11\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.245\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c12\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u0026minus;\u0026thinsp;.303\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c13\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.162\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eWorkload\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e-\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eWorkload\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e-0.839\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e8\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.426\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u0026minus;\u0026thinsp;.280\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c8\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.177\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c9\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e3027\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c10\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e15\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c11\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.008\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c12\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.757\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c13\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.266\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eDespondency\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e-\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eDespondency\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e-2.307\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e8\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.050\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u0026minus;\u0026thinsp;.769\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c8\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.233\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c9\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e-1414\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c10\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e15\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c11\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.178\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c12\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u0026minus;\u0026thinsp;.354\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c13\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.133\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003ePressure From Study\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e-\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003ePressure From Study\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e-0.466\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e8\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.653\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u0026minus;\u0026thinsp;.155\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c8\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.356\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c9\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.324\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c10\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e15\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c11\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.751\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c12\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.081\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c13\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.243\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eWorry About Grades\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e-\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eWorry About Grades\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.170\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e8\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.870\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.057\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c8\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.191\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c9\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e-0.837\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c10\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e15\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c11\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.416\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c12\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u0026minus;\u0026thinsp;.209\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c13\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.126\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003c/tbody\u003e \u003c/colgroup\u003e \u003ctfoot\u003e \u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd colspan=\"13\"\u003e*d= Cohen's d, SE= Standard Error of Cohen's d\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e \u003c/tfoot\u003e \u003c/table\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eAnalysis of the male treatment group revealed only despondency data not normal distribution, and three not normal distribution dimensions in the female treatment group: self-expectation, workload, and worry about grades. Meanwhile, the male control group revealed not normal distribution despondency and pressure from study data, and all dimensions were normally distributed in the female control group.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eIn the male treatment group, three dimensions showed significant changes: positive affect with medium effect sizes, negative affect with large effect sizes, and balanced affect with large effect sizes. However, there was no significant change in the female treatment group due to the intervention. In the male control group, only negative affect showed significant changes with large effect sizes, while in the female control group, only workload showed significant changes with large effect sizes. Therefore, it can be concluded that the overall changes in the experimental group were due to male respondents. However, the despondency dimension, which was analyzed for all respondents, showed no significant changes in either the male or female control group.\u003c/p\u003e"},{"header":"Discussion","content":"\u003cp\u003eThe analysis results for all respondents showed no effect of writing expression therapy on students stressed by overstudy. Similarly, results based on gender also showed no significant changes. However, writing expression therapy did have an effect on increasing positive emotions and decreasing negative emotions. These results echo previous research, where no significant effects of writing conditions were seen on anxiety, depressive symptoms, or physical symptoms. However, emotional expression emerged as a significant moderator of anxiety outcomes. Expressive writing about stressful events may be contraindicated for individuals who typically do not express emotions (Niles et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR27\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2014\u003c/span\u003e). Thus, it can be explained that as long as academic pressure persists, stress will persist. The closer the state university entrance exams approach, the more intense the tension students feel. This makes it increasingly difficult to express their emotions in writing. Meanwhile, self-disclosure is crucial in this expressive writing therapy because emotional disclosure elicited greater physiological reactivity and self-reported emotion than neutral writing (Konig et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR18\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2014\u003c/span\u003e).\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eHowever, there is sufficient evidence that writing therapy for all respondents significantly increased positive emotions and decreased negative emotions. This is in line with the research report, which states that the emotional changes that occur from writing therapy are a result of students' anxiety. Therefore, the expression in their writing is indeed a reflection of the negative emotions they have experienced, during the change from normal study patterns to overstudy due to competing for admission to state universities. There is also sufficient evidence that writing therapy increases positive emotions and decreases negative emotions. Even when someone is anxious about an exam and writes about those worries, it is suspected that it can improve test performance in class (Ramirez \u0026amp; Beilock, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR37\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2011\u003c/span\u003e). Likewise, anxiety symptoms are likely to decrease after writing therapy treatment is carried out (Frattaroli et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR11\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2011\u003c/span\u003e). Even though it has a medium effect, previous research has provided sufficient evidence to explain that writing therapy has a promising effect on mental health, but it has not been able to determine it (Travagin et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR46\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2015\u003c/span\u003e).\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eHowever, there was sufficient evidence across all respondents in the control group that negative affect and despondency decreased over the six days without expressive writing therapy. This essentially supports our hypothesis that stress and negative emotions can be reduced and positive emotions increased with expressive writing therapy. It also suggests that stress and negative emotions can be increased and positive emotions decreased without expressive writing therapy.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThen our results in the treatment group are in line with Lukenda et al., (\u003cspan citationid=\"CR24\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2025\u003c/span\u003e) which explains that gender differences produce different results, because only males experienced an increase in positive emotions and a decrease in negative emotions, while this did not occur in female respondents. It's not just the difference in emotional intelligence (Fischer et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR10\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2018\u003c/span\u003e) and brain function and emotion processes (including perception, reactivity, regulation, and experience) (Whittle et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR48\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2017\u003c/span\u003e) however small but significant gender differences in emotion expressions have been reported for adults, with women showing greater emotional expressivity, especially for positive emotions and internalizing negative emotions such as sadness (Chaplin, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR5\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2015\u003c/span\u003e). Daily academic pressure increases internalizing negative emotions in female students. Therefore, limited treatment provided to students fails to balance the emotions they receive or promote positive emotions.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eDifferences in respondent character and context are a concern for failing to reject the first hypothesis, although there are findings that report that there is an effect of writing therapy in reducing stress, such as in the character of university student respondents who provided writing therapy intervention for 7 days with a duration of 10\u0026ndash;15 minutes/session and the results of this intervention reduced stress and increased well-being (Mohamed et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR26\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2023\u003c/span\u003e). However, this study did not examine university students in the context of exam preparation or academic competition preparation to demonstrate achievement for individual career advancement or to enhance the reputation of the academic institution. This could potentially reduce stress due to the lack of daily pressure. Furthermore, uncontrolled external variables, such as internal and external factors, are also considered. Furthermore, there is a probability of rejecting the null hypothesis if the same effect is observed during the stress period (Lukenda et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR24\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2025\u003c/span\u003e).\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eFurthermore, the duration of the expressive writing intervention was also a key factor in this study. The intervention lasted only six days, and there was no evidence that expressive writing had any effect on reducing students' stress due to overstudying to successfully enter a state university. Meanwhile, some studies have shown that writing therapy can be administered for up to a month, with writing sessions lasting 20 minutes per session, to see the effects (Konig et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR18\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2014\u003c/span\u003e). Meanwhile, in other studies, it took 3 months to see the effects. (Jensen-Johansen et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR16\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2013\u003c/span\u003e). Based on literature findings, in adult cases, the average intervention takes around 20 minutes period in which they are guided by written instructions to engage with a stressful work-specific experience cognitively and emotionally (Lukenda et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR23\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2024\u003c/span\u003e). Although there are differences in the respondents' characters, they all experience pressure every day, whether it is eustress or distress.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eAlthough there are online interventions related to writing that have a fair degree of success in reducing stress, the writing context is different (see Kishimoto et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR17\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2025\u003c/span\u003e; Talbot et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR45\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2021\u003c/span\u003e) because there are indeed several differences when interventions are carried out offline or online because they are related to knowledge and processing, emotional and psychological factors, and trust and social dynamics (Grover et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR13\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2025\u003c/span\u003e). Most studies show comparable outcomes between face-to-face and online interventions. However, given the heterogeneity of samples and outcomes, it is premature to conclude that online treatments are as effective as face-to-face treatments for all different challenges and populations (Rafieifar et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR36\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2024\u003c/span\u003e). However, there are differences in collecting data through print or electronic means. Although electronic data is more efficient, collecting printed data requires more exercise than in electronic surveys (Šmigelskas et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR41\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2019\u003c/span\u003e) and more effective (Fang et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR8\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2021\u003c/span\u003e). However, the argument for online intervention may be a reason for failing to reject the stress-related hypothesis, given that there are quite a number of uncontrolled variables.\u003c/p\u003e"},{"header":"CONCLUSION","content":"\u003cp\u003eThese findings provide sufficient evidence that, in general, expressive writing therapy does not effectively reduce student stress due to overstudy leading up to the opening of the state university entrance selection. In addition, the extant literature suggests that expressive writing therapy exerts a significant impact on the emotional state of students, with a concomitant increase in positive emotions and a decrease in negative emotions, particularly in the period leading up to the state university entrance selection process. Concurrently, within the control group, a substantial shift was observed, characterized by an escalation in negative affect and despondency. However, gender was found to be a significant factor in the outcomes observed. Specifically, an increase in negative affect was noted among male respondents, while female respondents exhibited an increase in workload. These outcomes were attributed to the absence of expressive writing therapy interventions for the female respondents.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe findings of this study may be applicable to the phenomenon of overstudy that occurs in the period leading up to the administration of the state university entrance examination. The necessity of periodic testing during midterm and final exams is a crucial consideration that merits further investigation. The study's online-based approach was necessitated by the unavailability of a physical location for data collection and treatment, which was due to the preparations for the state university entrance exam that were underway at the time. A mixed-methods or comparative study is recommended to obtain a better effect size.\u003c/p\u003e"},{"header":"Declarations","content":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eFunding\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe authors disclosed not receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eEthics statement\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis research is in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki as an ethical principle or standard norm in the experimental treatment process provided.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eEthics Approval\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis research has received approval committee or the internal review board (IRB) from Faculty of Psychology, Medan Area University.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eConsent to Publish\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003enot applicable\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eClinical trial number\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003enot applicable\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eAuthors contribution\u0026nbsp;\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eM. Fadli Nugraha — ideas, annotation, writing and design of the manuscript, planning of the research, application of statistical, mathematical, data collection and analysis, visualization of research results, control over the research.\u0026nbsp;Imelda Hutagalung\u0026nbsp;— data collection, interpersonal communication, reviewing empirical data.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eCompeting interest policy\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eDual publication\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eResearch materials related to tables and figures are not being considered for publication elsewhere.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eData Availability Statement\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe dataset analyzed during the current study is available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eAcknowledgment\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe author expresses gratitude and specifically extends appreciation to pertinent leaders who were granted authorization to gather data at the educational institution.\u003c/p\u003e"},{"header":"References","content":"\u003col\u003e\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan\u003eAkhtar H. 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Exploring the interplay of academic stress, motivation, emotional intelligence, and mindfulness in higher education: a longitudinal cross-lagged panel model approach. BMC Psychol. 2024;12(1):732. \u003cspan class=\"ExternalRef\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"RefSource\"\u003ehttps://doi.org/10.1186/s40359-024-02284-6\u003c/span\u003e\u003cspan address=\"10.1186/s40359-024-02284-6\" targettype=\"DOI\" class=\"RefTarget\"\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/span\u003e.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\u003c/ol\u003e"}],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":true,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":false,"hideJournal":true,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":false,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":false,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-8677719/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-8677719/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003cp\u003eThe objective of this study was to implement expressive writing therapy for a group of students who were preparing for state university entrance exams, given the competitive nature of these exams. The hypothesis was that this therapy would increase positive emotions and reduce negative emotions and academic stress. A pre-test and post-test design with a control group was conducted with a sample of fifty students, who were divided equally into two groups. The treatment was administered in accordance with Pennebaker's systematic approach, and was conducted online over a period of six days. The findings of this study offer substantial evidence to suggest that expressive writing therapy does not effectively mitigate student stress. Nevertheless, the efficacy of expressive writing therapy in enhancing positive emotions and mitigating negative emotions has been demonstrated. In the control group, negative affect and despondency levels exhibited a significant increase. Conversely, within the male treatment group, there was a decline in positive affect and an increase in negative affect. No significant alterations were detected in the female treatment group. In the male control group, only negative affect demonstrated significant alterations, while in the female control group, only workload exhibited significant changes.\u003c/p\u003e","manuscriptTitle":"Captivation of state university: The impact of expressive writing therapy on students' academic stress and emotions","msid":"","msnumber":"","nonDraftVersions":[{"code":1,"date":"2026-02-09 11:12:45","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-8677719/v1","editorialEvents":[{"type":"communityComments","content":0}],"status":"published","journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true}}],"origin":"","ownerIdentity":"be25e7cd-c4cd-456e-af03-650d9a738516","owner":[],"postedDate":"February 9th, 2026","published":true,"recentEditorialEvents":[],"rejectedJournal":[],"revision":"","amendment":"","status":"posted","subjectAreas":[],"tags":[],"updatedAt":"2026-04-20T11:57:04+00:00","versionOfRecord":[],"versionCreatedAt":"2026-02-09 11:12:45","video":"","vorDoi":"","vorDoiUrl":"","workflowStages":[]},"version":"v1","identity":"rs-8677719","journalConfig":"researchsquare"},"__N_SSP":true},"page":"/article/[identity]/[[...version]]","query":{"redirect":"/article/rs-8677719","identity":"rs-8677719","version":["v1"]},"buildId":"XKTyCvWXoU3ODBz1xrDgd","isFallback":false,"isExperimentalCompile":false,"dynamicIds":[84888],"gssp":true,"scriptLoader":[]}