Evidence map›Paper›PMID 28462480›Full record

ArticleAnnals of behavioral medicine : a publication of the Society of Behavioral Medicine2017

Helping Yourself by Offering Help: Mediators of Expressive Helping in Survivors of Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplant.

Timothy J Williamson, Annette L Stanton, Jane E Austin, Heiddis B Valdimarsdottir, Lisa M Wu, Jennifer L Krull, Christine M Rini

Open access · greenAbstract read
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Article in Annals of behavioral medicine : a publication of the Society of Behavioral Medicine, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
7citing papers in PubMed, 1 pooled it
–field-weighted citation impact, top 95% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

7 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 8 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Pooled it
  2. Article
  3. Nonzero-Sum Time Perception Is Associated with Greater Willingness to Help.European journal of investigation in health, psychology and education · 2025
    Article
  4. Review
  5. Article
  6. Article
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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

7 authors at 5 institutions in 2 countries.

Timothy J WilliamsonDepartment of Psychology, University of California, 1285 Franz Hall, Box 951563, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA, 90095, USA.
Annette L StantonDepartment of Psychology, University of California, 1285 Franz Hall, Box 951563, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA, 90095, USA. astanton@ucla.edu.
Jane E AustinDepartment of Psychology, William Paterson University, Wayne, NJ, USA.
Heiddis B ValdimarsdottirDepartment of Psychology, Reykjavik University, Reykjavik, Iceland.
Lisa M WuDepartment of Medical Social Sciences, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, IL, USA.
Jennifer L KrullDepartment of Psychology, University of California, 1285 Franz Hall, Box 951563, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA, 90095, USA.
Christine M RiniJohn Theurer Cancer Center, Hackensack University Medical Center, Hackensack, NJ, USA.
University of California, Los Angeles · USHackensack University Medical Center · USNorthwestern University · USReykjavík University · ISWilliam Paterson University · US

Funding

PREVENTION RESEARCH TRAINING:URBAN CHILDREN'S MENT HLTHT32MH015750 · NIMH · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES · PI CHRISTINE DUNKEL SCHETTER · 1985 to 2026
$6.2M
Treating cognitive impairments in cancer patients via systematic light exposureK07CA184145 · NCI · NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY AT CHICAGO · PI WU, LISA MARIA · 2015 to 2019
$835k
American Cancer Society RSGPB-07-285-01-CPPBNCI NIH HHS K07 CA184145NIMH NIH HHS T32 MH015750
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundA randomized experiment by Rini et al. (Health Psychol. 33(12):1541-1551, 2014) demonstrated that expressive helping, which involves three expressive writing sessions regarding hematopoietic stem cell transplant, followed by one writing session directed toward helping other stem cell transplant recipients, reduced psychological distress and bothersome physical symptoms among stem cell transplant recipients with elevated survivorship problems, relative to a neutral writing control condition. PURPOSE: The current study evaluated whether word use reflective of emotional expression, cognitive processing, and change in perspective mediates the effects of expressive helping.

methodThe essays of 67 stem cell transplant recipients with high survivorship problems were analyzed with Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count. Multiple mediation modeling was used to test the hypothesized mechanisms of expressive helping on distress and bothersome physical symptoms.

resultsRelative to the control condition, expressive helping produced significant reductions in psychological distress and marginal reductions in physical symptom bother in the analyzed subset of participants from the parent study. Results indicated that positive emotion word use significantly mediated effects of expressive helping on reduced distress, but only for participants who used average (compared to above or below average) rates of negative emotion words. Cognitive processing and change in perspective did not significantly mediate benefits of expressive helping.

conclusionsExpressive helping carried its positive effects on distress through participants' higher expression of positive emotions when coupled with moderate rates of negative emotions. Findings highlight the benefit of expressing both positive and negative emotions in stressful situations.

Indexed as

CognitionEmotionsWritingAdaptation, PsychologicalCancer SurvivorsFemaleHematopoietic Stem Cell TransplantationHumansLinguisticsMaleMiddle AgedModels, PsychologicalRandomized Controlled Trials as TopicStress, PsychologicalCancer survivorshipEmotional expressionExpressive writingHematopoietic stem cell transplantInterventionMediation analysisPeer helping

Identifiers

PMID28462480
PMCPMC5819612
OpenAlexW2611600370

What OpenQuestion holds

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Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.