Our purpose was to examine the effects of autobiographical writing on the well-being of older adults to determine if there were differences between participants who enrolled in an autobiographical writing class or those who took part in a continuing education liberal arts class. The Positive and Negative Affect Scale was used, as was the Satisfaction with Life Scale. It was hypothesized that there would be a significant difference between those who took part in the autobiographical writing classes and those who participated in the liberal arts classes on three dependent measures of subjective well-being. A split-plot analysis of variance was used, and the results indicated a significant difference between the scores on negative affect achieved by older persons who participated in the autobiographical writing classes when compared to those in the liberal arts classes. The negative affect of those enrolled in the autobiographical writing classes decreased from pretest to posttest when compared to the liberal arts class participants. No significant difference was found from pretest to posttest on the other two dependent measures, positive affect and satisfaction with life. (Authors abstract)

The authors examined the effects of autobiographical writing on the well-being of older adults to determine if there were differences between participants who enrolled in an autobiographical writing class or those who took part in a continuing education liberal arts class.