Following a divorce or separation, many people are encouraged by loved ones or health-care professionals to keep journals about their feelings.
In a study of 90 recently divorced or separated individuals, psychological scientist David Sbarra of the University of Arizona and colleagues found that writing about one's feelings can actually leave some people feeling more emotionally distraught months down the line.
This was true particularly in those individuals who are prone to seeking a deeper meaning for their failed marriage, the journal Clinical Psychological Science reported.
"There are very few known interventions to promote adjustment and healing after marital separation.
"So our basic starting point was that we need experimental data on how to improve people's lives and how to promote wellness after this difficult event," said Sbarra.
Sbarra studied individuals who had physically separated from a spouse on an average of three months before the start of the study.
After completing an initial assessment to determine their emotional baseline, participants were randomly assigned to one of three groups.
Members of one group were asked to write about their feelings about their relationship through traditional expressive writing.
Another group was asked to practice a technique known as narrative expressive writing - to write about feelings but within the framework of a narrative with a beginning, middle and end, effectively telling the story of the marriage.
The third, the control group, was instructed to simply keep a journal of basic daily activities, without writing about emotions or opinions.
The participants were asked to write in a journal, using their prescribed style, for 20 minutes a day for three consecutive days. Eight months later, their emotional state was re-evaluated in a follow-up assessment.
The unexpected results suggest expressive writing of any kind can actually hinder emotional recovery for certain individuals, whereas non-expressive control writing might actually be a more effective intervention.
