Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, Vol. 36, No. 5, 2017, pp. 359-379 359 © 2017 Guilford Publications, Inc. Matthias R. Mehl’s and David A. Sbarra’s work was supported by a grant from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (HD069498), and the overall project was funded by grants from the National Institute of Mental Health (MH074637) and the National Institute on Aging (AG028454 and AG036895). Address correspondence to Kyle Bourassa, 1503 E. University Blvd., Bldg. #68, Tucson, AZ 85721-0068; E-mail: kylebourassa@email.arizona.edu CREATION OF NARRATIVE BOURASSA ET AL. TELL ME A STORY: THE CREATION OF NARRATIVE AS A MECHANISM OF PSYCHOLOGICAL RECOVERY FOLLOWING MARITAL SEPARATION KYLE J. BOURASSA AND ATINA MANVELIAN University of Arizona ADRIEL BOALS University of North Texas MATTHIAS R. MEHL AND DAVID A. SBARRA University of Arizona Divorce is a common stressor that is associated with increased risk for poor men- tal health. This study examined the creation of narrative as a psychological mech- anism explaining the link between psychological overinvolvement and psycho- logical distress in a sample of recently separated adults (N = 109). Prior analyses of this sample found iatrogenic effects of expressive writing (EW) on psychologi- cal distress among people reporting high levels of rumination. In this reanalysis, however, we tested whether narrative creation explained the association between individual differences in psychological overinvolvement and psychological dis- tress, measured by a composite of depressive symptoms and divorce-related distress, 7.5 months later. Participants were assigned to one of three conditions: traditional EW, narrative EW, or a control condition. Participants’ psychological overinvolvement was assessed using a composite of three different methodolo- gies: self-report, language use, and independently coded scores. Lower scores of psychological overinvolvement predicted more self-reported narrative coher-