Applying E-Writing Therapy to Improve Mental Wellbeing among Malaysian University Students Following the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic is a global crisis that has significantly impacted people’s lives worldwide, particularly in terms of mental health and wellbeing. The implementation of frequent and restrictive movement control orders has resulted in prolonged online learning for university students. However, limited research has been conducted to test practical interventions aimed at alleviating the negative impact on the mental wellbeing of university students during the pandemic. This mixed-method research study aimed to investigate the usability of e-writing therapy as an intervention tool to improve the mental wellbeing of 40 university students in a public Malaysian higher education institution. A one-group pretest-posttest design was employed, and a mental wellbeing questionnaire based on the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9), Generalised Anxiety Disorder (GAD-7), and the Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale (WEMWBS) was administered to the participants before and after the intervention. The results of paired-samples t-tests for each instrument indicated that there was no significant improvement in the students’ mental wellbeing after the four-week intervention period. However, qualitative data obtained from the students’ experiences with e-writing therapy revealed that it provided a flexible and personal safe space for emotional expression. It empowered them to address their mental health needs during the post-pandemic era, while minimising concerns about stigma, privacy and confidentiality, despite having certain challenges and concerns. Therefore, there is potential for e-writing therapy to be used as a complementary tool alongside conventional psychological interventions to address mental wellbeing issues among university students.