The effectiveness of expressed gratitude interventions in enhancing psychological wellbeing has been explored in a number of studies. The present meta-analysis synthesized results from 25 randomized controlled trials, including a total of 6,745 participants, to examine the effect of expressed gratitude interventions on positive indicators of psychological wellbeing, including life satisfaction, positive affect, and happiness. The results showed that expressed gratitude interventions had a significant effect on psychological wellbeing relative to neutral comparison groups, Hedges’ g = 0.22, 95% CI [0.11, 0.33], p < .001. The significant effects applied to each of the three elements of positive wellbeing. Intervention length and duration from baseline to final assessment did not significantly moderate effect sizes across studies. The present findings indicate that expressed gratitude interventions have value in improving psychological wellbeing.

Kirca, A., M., Malouff, J., & Meynadier, J. (2023). The Effect of expressed gratitude interventions on psychological wellbeing: A meta-analysis of randomized controlled studies. International Journal of Applied Positive Psychology 8, 63–86. doi.org/10.1007/s41042-023-00086-6. 

The effect of a grateful outlook on psychological and physical well-being was examined. In Studies 1 and 2, participants were randomly assigned to 1 of 3 experimental conditions (hassles, gratitude listing, and either neutral life events or social comparison); they then kept weekly (Study 1) or daily (Study 2) records of their moods, coping behaviors, health behaviors, physical symptoms, and overall life appraisals. In a 3rd study, persons with neuromuscular disease were randomly assigned to either the gratitude condition or to a control condition. The gratitude-outlook groups exhibited heightened well-being across several, though not all, of the outcome measures across the 3 studies, relative to the comparison groups. The effect on positive affect appeared to be the most robust finding. Results suggest that a conscious focus on blessings may have emotional and interpersonal benefits. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)

Emmons, R. A., & McCullough, M. E. (2003). Counting blessings versus burdens: An experimental investigation of gratitude and subjective well-being in daily life. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 84(2), 377–389. doi:10.1037//0022-3514.84.2.377 

Children and youth comprise nearly 39% of the Indian population and are often considered the future demographic dividend of the country. The mental health and well-being of these young people are a pressing challenge in current times. The present study aimed to replicate the widely popular positive psychology interventions of Seligman et al. (Am Psychol 60:410–421, 2005) in a different culture and demographic groups of Indian adolescents. 372 students (MAge= 12.73, SD = 0.98, age range 11–13 years, 56% male) from two schools participated in the study. Participating classrooms were randomized across 5 interventions (Three good things in life, Gratitude visit, You at your best, Using signature strengths and Using signature strengths in a new way) and 1 placebo control group (Recalling early memories). Each exercise was completed over 1 week. Self-reported measures of wellbeing, affect, happiness and depressive symptoms were obtained at pre- and post-intervention. Participants who undertook the Gratitude visit and signature strength-based interventions reported gains in well-being, life satisfaction and happiness at post-test. Interventions involving only self-reflection and journaling showed no statistically significant impact on outcome variables. None of the interventions led to perceived gains in scores of depressive symptoms.

Khanna, P., & Singh, K. (2019). Do all positive psychology exercises work for everyone? Replication of Seligman et al.’s (2005) interventions among adolescents. Psychological Studies 64(3), 1–10. doi.org/10.1007/s12646-019-00477-3 

Mothers of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) commonly report elevated levels of stress and psychopathology compared to mothers of typically developing children. However, there is an expanding area of research which focuses on factors that promote positive adaptation among mothers of children with ASD. Gratitude is one factor associated with positive outcomes in the general population and may therefore, also be associated with positive outcomes for mothers of children with ASD. Method: In this qualitative study, mothers of children with ASD were divided into two groups and instructed to write letters of gratitude to either someone besides their child (general gratitude) or their child (child gratitude). Coding and thematic analysis of their narratives was conducted using ATLAS.ti computer software. Results: Prominent themes for mothers in the general gratitude group included sources of social support, characteristics of close personal relationships, inspirational others, and other positive attributes of individuals, such as being kind-hearted. Whereas, in the child gratitude group, emergent themes were the child with ASD making progress, the child’s personality, inspiration, and shared experiences. Conclusions: Findings from this study suggest that mothers are able to identify and express gratitude for beneficial aspects of their lives. These findings have important implications for the understanding of the experience of parenting a child with ASD and may also serve to inform development of interventions to promote well-being in families of children with ASD.

Timmons, L., Ekas, N. V., & Johnson, P. (2017). Thankful thinking: A thematic analysis of gratitude letters by mothers of children with autism spectrum disorder. Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders, 34, 19–27. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rasd.2016.11.009 

This chapter examines the feeling of being grateful. It suggests feeling grateful is similar to other positive emotions that help build a person’s enduring personal resources and broaden an individual’s thinking. It describes various ways by which gratitude can transform individuals, organizations, and communities in positive and sustaining ways. It discusses the specific benefits of gratitude including personal and social development, community strength and individual health and well-being.

Fredrickson, B. L. (2004). Gratitude, like other positive emotions, broadens and builds. In R. A. Emmons, & M. E. McCullough (Eds.), The psychology of gratitude (pp. 145-166). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195150100.003.0008 

Although gratitude is often defined as being an emotion that motivates reciprocity and connectedness between people, individuals can also experience gratitude to nonhuman entities such as nature. Despite expressions of gratitude to nature being common in cultures throughout world, little research has examined its implications for sustainability. In two studies, the current research explored how writing letters of gratitude to nature might increase pro-environmental behavior by leading people to see nature as large and by leading to more inclusion of nature in one’s self-concept. Study 1 compared the effects of nature gratitude letters to gratitude letters to built environments and to a neutral control condition, finding that nature gratitude letters led to greater inclusion of nature in self and greater nature size. Although there was no direct effect on intentions to act proenvironmentally, the nature gratitude letter had indirect effects leading to greater intentions via both increased nature size and nature inclusion. Study 2 aimed to replicate these findings and extend them by testing the role of two potential moderators: biospheric value orientation and personal norms of positive reciprocity. First, we found that the nature gratitude letter led to more nature inclusion, greater nature size, more selftranscendent emotion, and more pro-environmental behavioral intentions compared to the built gratitude letter. Second, an interaction was found such that the effect of the nature gratitude letter on pro-environmental behavioral intentions was only significant among those with average or greater endorsement of biospheric values. Implications for sustainability and emotion research are discussed.

Jacobs, T. P. (2024). Gratitude letters to nature: Effects on self-nature representations and pro-environmental behavior. Journal of Environmental Psychology 96. 102319. doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2024.102319 

The development and manifestation of gratitude in youth is unclear. We examined the effects of a grateful outlook on subjective well-being and other outcomes of positive psychological functioning in 221 early adolescents. Eleven classes were randomly assigned to either a gratitude, hassles, or control condition. Results indicated that counting blessings was associated with enhanced self-reported gratitude, optimism, life satisfaction, and decreased negative affect. Feeling grateful in response to aid mediated the relationship between experimental condition and general gratitude at the 3-week follow-up. The most significant finding was the robust relationship between gratitude and satisfaction with school experience at both the immediate post-test and 3-week follow-up. Counting blessings seems to be an effective intervention for well-being enhancement in early adolescents. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)

Froh, J. J., Sefick, W. J., & Emmons, R. A. (2008). Counting blessings in early adolescents: An experimental study of gratitude and subjective well-being. Journal of School Psychology, 46(2), 213–233. 

Research suggests gratitude interventions—designed to increase appreciation of positive qualities, situations, and people in one’s life—may improve psychological well-being (e.g., Seligman et al. in Am Psychol 60:410–421, 2005. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003- 066X.60.5.410). Accordingly, mental health practitioners have promoted gratitude interventions as a means of self-help. However, results from previous reviews suggest that well-being improvements associated with gratitude interventions may be attributable to placebo efects (Davis et al. in J Couns Psychol 63:20–31, 2016. https://doi.org/10.1037/ cou0000107; Wood et al. in Clin Psychol Rev 30:890–905, 2010, https://doi.org/10.1016/j. cpr.2010.03.005). With this meta-analysis, we examined the efcacy of gratitude interventions (k=27, N=3675) in reducing symptoms of depression and anxiety at post-test and follow-up periods. Gratitude interventions had a small efect on symptoms of depression and anxiety at both post-test (g=−0.29, SE=0.06, p<.01) and follow-up (g=−0.23, SE=0.06, p<.01). Correcting for attenuation from unreliability did not change results. Moderation analyses indicated efect sizes were larger for studies using waitlist, rather than active, control conditions at post-test and follow-up. We did not fnd consistent evidence for efects of other moderator variables (e.g., risk of bias, depressive symptom severity, or type of intervention used). Our results suggest the efects of gratitude interventions on symptoms of depression and anxiety are relatively modest. Therefore, we recommend individuals seeking to reduce symptoms of depression and anxiety engage in interventions with stronger evidence of efcacy for these symptoms.

Cregg, D.R., & Cheavens, J.S. (2021). Gratitude interventions: Effective self-help? A meta-analysis of the impact on symptoms of depression and anxiety. Journal of Happiness Studies 22, 413–445. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-020-00236-6  

Since workers are increasingly suffering from burnout, there is a need for insights into how burnout can be decreased to improve subjective well-being. The broaden-and-build theory proposes that gratitude increases well-being through an upward spiral. Few studies have examined whether gratitude decreases burnout and what mediating behaviors explain this relationship. Using an international sample of employees (N = 353), this study examines whether work-specific gratitude negatively relates to exhaustion and disengagement. Additionally, since gratitude stimulates helping through upstream reciprocity, this study investigates whether interpersonal helping behavior (IHB) mediates these relationships. Our study showed a negative effect of work-specific gratitude on disengagement and exhaustion and a negative relationship between work-specific gratitude and disengagement, mediated by IHB, suggesting that gratitude stimulates IHB, thereby alleviating disengagement. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved)

Kersten, A., van Woerkom, M., Kooij, D. T. A. M., & Bauwens, R. (2021). Paying gratitude forward at work: How work-specific gratitude can affect burnout through interpersonal helping behavior. Journal of Personnel Psychology, 21(3). 

This randomized controlled experiment tested whether a brief subjective well-being intervention would have favorable effects on cardiovascular and neuroendocrine function and on sleep. We compared 2 weeks of a gratitude intervention with an active control (everyday events reporting) and no treatment conditions in 119 young women. The treatment elicited increases in hedonic well-being, optimism and sleep quality along with decreases in diastolic blood pressure. Improvements in subjective well-being were correlated with increased sleep quality and reductions in blood pressure, but there were no relationships with cortisol. This brief intervention suggests that subjective well-being may contribute towards lower morbidity and mortality through healthier biological function and restorative health behaviors.

Jackowska, M., Brown, J., Ronaldson, A., & Steptoe, A. (2016). The impact of a brief gratitude intervention on subjective well-being, biology and sleep. Journal of Health Psychology, 21(10), 2207–2217. 

Research into gratitude as a significant sociological and psychological phenomenon has proliferated in the past two decades. However, there is little consensus on how it should be conceptualized or investigated empirically. We present a meta-narrative review that focuses on gratitude in health care, with an emphasis on research exploring interpersonal experiences in the context of care provision. Six meta-narratives from literatures across the humanities, sciences, and medicine are identified, contextualized, and discussed: gratitude as social capital; gifts; care ethics; benefits of gratitude; gratitude and staff well-being; and gratitude as an indicator of quality of care. Meta-narrative review was a valuable framework for making sense of theoretical antecedents and findings in this developing area of research. We conclude that greater attention needs to be given to what constitutes “evidence” in gratitude research and call for qualitative studies to better understand and shape the role and implications of gratitude in health care. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved)

Day, G., Robert, G., & Rafferty, A. M. (2020). Gratitude in health care: A meta-narrative review. Qualitative Health Research, 30(14), 2303–2315. 

We used a randomized controlled trial to test the effectiveness of a gratitude 3-blessings treatment for enhancing subjective well-being. Although several experimental studies have investigated gratitude interventions, many of these have used inadequate control conditions, and currently we know little about how gratitude treatments work. In this study, subjects were randomly assigned to one of three daily 1-week treatments: memory placebo, pride 3-blessings, or gratitude 3-blessings. The gratitude 3-blessings treatment significantly outperformed the comparison treatments in enhancing well-being. Moreover, the well-being of those in the gratitude treatment continued to climb after the treatment phase, similar to the findings of Seligman, Steen, Park, and Peterson (2005). We also found that the gratitude treatment enhanced the accessibility of positive memories compared to the comparison treatments. Our results suggest that exercises like the gratitude 3-blessings treatment may train cognitive biases that are salubrious to subjective well-being.

Watkins, P. C., Uhder, J., & Pichinevskiy, S. (2015). Grateful recounting enhances subjective well-being: The importance of grateful processing. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 10(2), 91–98.  

This study assessed the dispositional gratitude and its relationships with orientations to happiness and burnout in a sample of 96 Chinese school teachers in Hong Kong and investigated the effectiveness of an eight‐week gratitude intervention programme using a pre‐test/post‐test design with outcome measures of subjective wellbeing in the same sample of teachers. The results indicated that the dispositional gratitude of teachers correlated substantially and positively with a meaningful life orientation to happiness and with personal accomplishment, and correlated substantially and negatively with the two negative components of burnout: emotional exhaustion and depersonalisation. The effects of the gratitude intervention were evident in the increase in scores on satisfaction with life and on positive affect, especially for teachers in the low gratitude group. Implications of the findings on the relationships between gratitude and burnout and the effectiveness of gratitude intervention for teachers of different levels of dispositional gratitude are discussed.

Chan, D. W. (2010). Gratitude, gratitude intervention and subjective wellbeing among Chinese school teachers in Hong Kong. Educational Psychology, 30(2), 139–153. 

This study investigated the effectiveness of a gratitude intervention programme in promoting life satisfaction and reducing burnout symptoms. Sixty-three Hong Kong Chinese school teachers aged 22–54 participated in an eight-week count-your-blessings study that used a pre-test/post-test design. Increases in life satisfaction and the sense of personal accomplishment and decreases in emotional exhaustion and depersonalisation were observed in the post-intervention assessment. Significant changes were observed on life satisfaction and emotional exhaustion as a result of intervention interacting with the meaningful-life orientation to happiness. These changes favoured teachers who put higher value on the meaningful-life orientation, suggesting that the promotion of a meaningful-life orientation could be an important element in the repertoire of gratitude intervention efforts. Implications of the findings on developing gratitude intervention programmes that focus on human positives and the promotion of gratitude and the meaningful-life orientation in combating teacher burnout are discussed.

Chan, D. W. (2011). Burnout and life satisfaction: Does gratitude intervention make a difference among Chinese school teachers in Hong Kong? Educational Psychology, 31(7), 809–823. 

Background: Theory and research have shown that gratitude interventions have positive outcomes on measures of well-being. Gratitude listing, behavioral expressions, and grateful contemplation are methods of inducing gratitude. While research has examined gratitude listing and behavioral expressions, no study has tested the long-term effects of a gratitude contemplation intervention on well-being. Methods: The present experiment examined the efficacy of a 4-week gratitude contemplation intervention program in improving well-being relative to a memorable events control condition. Pre-test measures of cardiac coherence, trait gratitude, and positive and negative affect were collected. Pre- and post-test measures assessing satisfaction with life and self-esteem were also collected. Daily positive and negative affect were completed twice a week throughout the intervention period. Results: Compared to those in the memo- rable events condition, participants in the gratitude condition reported higher satisfaction with life and self-esteem. Trait gratitude was found to moderate the effects of the gratitude intervention on satisfaction with life. Conclusion: Grate- ful contemplation can be used to enhance long-term well-being.

Rash, J. A., Matsuba, M. K., & Prkachin, K. M. (2011). Gratitude and well-being: Who benefits the most from a gratitude intervention? Applied Psychology: Health and Well-Being, 3(3), 350–369. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1758-0854.2011.01058.x 

Objectives: To test whether individual differences in gratitude are related to sleep after controlling for neuroticism and other traits. To test whether pre-sleep cognitions are the mechanism underlying this relationship. Method: A cross-sectional questionnaire study was conducted with a large (186 males, 215 females) community sample (ages=18–68 years, mean=24.89, S.D.=9.02), including 161 people (40%) scoring above 5 on the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, indicating clinically impaired sleep. Measures included gratitude, the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), self-statement test of pre-sleep cognitions, the Mini-IPIP scales of Big Five personality traits, and the Social Desirability Scale. Results: Gratitude predicted greater subjective sleep quality and sleep duration, and less sleep latency and daytime dysfunction. The relationship between gratitude and each of the sleep variables was mediated by more positive pre-sleep cognitions and less negative pre-sleep cognitions. All of the results were independent of the effect of the Big Five personality traits (including neuroticism) and social desirability. Conclusion: This is the first study to show that a positive trait is related to good sleep quality above the effect of other personality traits, and to test whether pre-sleep cognitions are the mechanism underlying the relationship between any personality trait and sleep. The study is also the first to show that trait gratitude is related to sleep and to explain why this occurs, suggesting future directions for research, and novel clinical implications.

Wood, A. M., Joseph, S., Lloyd, J., & Atkins, S. (2009). Gratitude influences sleep through the mechanism of pre-sleep cognitions. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 66(1), 43–48. 

Objective: This study examined the effect of a reflective interpersonal gratitude journal, a reflective- behavioral interpersonal gratitude journal and an active control journal, on primary qualities of well-being and depression. Method: Participants (n = 192; 67.2% female) completed this 3-month longitudinal randomized controlled design. Results: Participants in the reflective-behavioral condition experi- enced the greatest improvements in affect balance and reductions in depression at immediate posttest. Both gratitude interventions improved affect balance at 1 month, compared to the control. Changes in affect balance for those in the reflective-behavioral condition were mediated by the rate at which people expressed gratitude in their existing relationships. This effect was moderated by participant’s baseline depressive status. Conclusion: Expressing felt gratitude to others appears to be a crucial step in deriving benefits, and these benefits may not be limited to the emotionally healthy. Given the applied popularity of gratitude interventions, understanding not only if but also how they work is essential.

O'Connell, B. H., O'Shea, D., & Gallagher, S. (2017). Feeling thanks and saying thanks: A randomized controlled trial examining if and how socially oriented gratitude journals work. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 73(10), 1280–1300. https://doi.org/10.1002/jclp.22469 

This study examined the effects of writing letters of gratitude on three primary qualities of well-being; happiness (positive affect), life-satisfaction (cognitive evaluation), and depression (negative affect). Gratitude was also assessed. Participants included 219 men and women who wrote three letters of gratitude over a 3 week period. A two-way mixed method ANOVA with a between factor (writers vs. non-writers) and within subject factor (time of testing) analysis was conducted. Results indicated that writing letters of gratitude increased participants’ happiness and life satisfaction, while decreasing depressive symptoms. The implications of this approach for intervention are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved)

Toepfer, S. M., Cichy, K., & Peters, P. (2012). Letters of gratitude: Further evidence for author benefits. Journal of Happiness Studies, 13(1), 187–201. 

A 4-week experimental study (N = 67) examined the motivational predictors and positive emotion outcomes of regularly practicing two mental exercises: counting one's blessings ("gratitude") and visualizing best possible selves ("BPS"). In a control exercise, participants attended to the details of their day. Undergraduates performed one of the three exercises during Session I and were asked to continue performing it at home until Session II (in 2 weeks) and again until Session III (in a further 2 weeks). Following previous theory and research, the practices of gratitude and BPS were expected to boost immediate positive affect, relative to the control condition. In addition, we hypothesized that continuing effortful performance of these exercises would be necessary to maintain the boosts (Lyubomirsky, S., Sheldon, K. M., & Schkade, D. (2005a). Pursuing happiness: The architecture of sustainable change. Review of General Psychology, 9, 111-131). Finally, initial self-concordant motivation to perform the exercise was expected to predict actual performance and to moderate the effects of performance on increased mood. Results generally supported these hypotheses, and suggested that the BPS exercise may be most beneficial for raising and maintaining positive mood. Implications of the results for understanding the critical factors involved in increasing and sustaining positive affect are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)

Sheldon, K. M., & Lyubomirsky, S. (2006). How to increase and sustain positive emotion: The effects of expressing gratitude and visualizing best possible selves. Journal of Positive Psychology, 1(2), 73–82. 

Although gratitude is a key phenomenon that bridges helping with its outcomes, how and why helping relates to receipt of gratitude and its relation with helper’s eudaimonic well-being have unfortunately been overlooked in organizational research. The purpose of this study is to unravel how helpers successfully connect to others and their work via receipt of gratitude. To do so, we distinguish different circumstances of helping—reactive helping (i.e., providing help when requested) versus proactive helping (i.e., providing help without being asked)—and examine their unique effect on the gratitude received by helpers, which, in turn, has downstream implications for helpers’ perceived prosocial impact and work engagement the following day. Using daily experience sampling (Study 1) and critical incident (Study 2) methods, we found that reactive helping is more likely to be linked to receipt of gratitude than proactive helping. Receipt of gratitude, in turn, is associated with increases in perceived prosocial impact and work engagement the following day. Our study contributes to the helping literature by identifying receipt of gratitude as a novel mechanism that links helping to helper well-being, by distinguishing proactive and reactive helping, and by highlighting eudaimonic well-being as an outcome of helping for helpers. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved)

Lee, H. W., Bradburn, J., Johnson, R. E., Lin, S.-H. (J.), & Chang, C.-H. (D.). (2019). The benefits of receiving gratitude for helpers: A daily investigation of proactive and reactive helping at work. Journal of Applied Psychology, 104(2), 197–213. 

This study examined the role that employee perceptions of dispositional gratitude, state gratitude and institutionalized gratitude had upon job satisfaction. Employees (n = 171) completed measures of dispositional, state and institutionalized gratitude together with job satisfaction. Multiple Hierarchical Regression showed that state gratitude and institutional gratitude uniquely predict job satisfaction. The results have implications for the fields of positive organizational scholarship and positive organizational behavior and suggest that workplaces aiming to increase job satisfaction can do so through organizationally-based gratitude interventions and by institutionalizing gratitude into workplace culture.

Waters, L. (2012). Predicting job satisfaction: Contributions of individual gratitude and institutionalized gratitude. Psychology, 3(12), 1174–1176.  

In two longitudinal studies, the authors examined the direction of the relationships between trait gratitude, perceived social support, stress, and depression during a life transition. Both studies used a full cross-lagged panel design, with participants completing all measures at the start and end of their first semester at college. Structural equation modeling was used to compare models of direct, reverse, and reciprocal models of directionality. Both studies supported a direct model whereby gratitude led to higher levels of perceived social support, and lower levels of stress and depression. In contrast, no variable led to gratitude, and most models of mediation were discounted. Study 2 additionally showed that gratitude leads to the other variables independently of the Big Five factors of personality. Overall gratitude seems to directly foster social support, and to protect people from stress and depression, which has implications for clinical interventions.

Wood, A. M., Maltby, J., Gillett, R., Linley, P. A., & Joseph, S. (2008). The role of gratitude in the development of social support, stress, and depression: Two longitudinal studies. Journal of Research in Personality, 42(4), 854–871. 

Gratitude is essential to social life and well-being. Although research with youth populations has gained momentum recently, only two gratitude interventions have been conducted in youth, targeting mostly adolescents. In the current research, we tested a new intervention for promoting gratitude among the youngest children targeted to date. Elementary school classrooms (of 8- to 11-year-olds) were randomly assigned either to an intervention that educated children about the appraisal of benefit exchanges or to a control condition. We found that children's awareness of the social-cognitive appraisals of beneficial social exchanges (i.e., grateful thinking) can be strengthened and that this, in turn, makes children more grateful and benefits their well-being in terms of increased general positive affect. A daily intervention produced evidence that this new approach induced gratitude immediately (2 days later) and led children to express gratitude more behaviorally (i.e., they wrote 80% more thank-you cards to their Parent–Teacher Association). A weekly intervention induced gratitude up to 5 months later and additionally showed an effect on well-being (i.e., positive affect). Evidence thus supported the effectiveness of this intervention. Results are discussed in terms of implications for positive youth development and academic functioning.

Froh, J. J., Bono, G., Fan, J., Emmons, R. A., Henderson, K., Harris, C., Leggio, H., & Wood, A. M. (2014). Nice thinking! An educational intervention that teaches children to think gratefully. School Psychology Review, 43(2), 132–152. 

Gratitude, a positive response to receiving a benefit, may contribute more to youth than just momentary happiness. It may ignite in youth a motivation for “upstream generativity” whereby its experience contributes to a desire to give back to their neighborhood, community, and world. We tested this notion by longitudinally examining early adolescents’ gratitude and their social integration, or motivation to use their strengths to help others and feel connected to others at a macro level. Middle school students (N=700) completed measures of gratitude, prosocial behavior, life satisfaction, and social integration at baseline (T1), 3-months (T2), and 6-months (T3) later. Using bootstrapping to examine multiple mediators, controlling for demographics and social integration at T1, we found that gratitude at T1 predicted social integration at T3 and that prosocial behavior and life satisfaction at T2 mediated the relation. Further mediational analyses showed that gratitude and social integration serially enhanced each other. This prospective evidence aligns well with the interpretation that gratitude may help to initiate upward spirals toward greater emotional and social well-being. Implications are discussed in terms of gratitude’s role in positive youth development.

Froh, J. J., Bono, G., & Emmons, R. A. (2010). Being grateful is beyond good manners: Gratitude and motivation to contribute to society among early adolescents. Motivation and Emotion, 34, 144–157. 

Materialistic youth seem to be languishing while grateful youth seem to be flourishing. High school students (N = 1,035) completed measures of materialism, gratitude, academic functioning, envy, depression, life satisfaction, social integration, and absorption. Using structural equation modeling, we found that gratitude, controlling for materialism, uniquely predicts all outcomes considered: higher grade point average, life satisfaction, social integration, and absorption, as well as lower envy and depression. In contrast, materialism, controlling for gratitude, uniquely predicts three of the six outcomes: lower grade point average, as well as higher envy and life satisfaction. Furthermore, when examining the relative strengths of gratitude and materialism as predictors, we found that gratitude is generally a stronger predictor of these six outcomes than is materialism. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved)

Froh, J. J., Emmons, R. A., Card, N. A., Bono, G., & Wilson, J. A. (2011). Gratitude and the reduced costs of materialism in adolescents. Journal of Happiness Studies, 12, 289–302. 

The authors hypothesized that thinking about the absence of a positive event from one’s life would improve affective states more than thinking about the presence of a positive event but that people would not predict this when making affective forecasts. In Studies 1 and 2, college students wrote about the ways in which a positive event might never have happened and was surprising or how it became part of their life and was unsurprising. As predicted, people in the former condition reported more positive affective states. In Study 3, college student forecasters failed to anticipate this effect. In Study 4, Internet respondents and university staff members who wrote about how they might never have met their romantic partner were more satisfied with their relationship than were those who wrote about how they did meet their partner. The authors discuss the implications of these findings for the literatures on gratitude induction and counterfactual reasoning.

Koo, M., Algoe, S. B., Wilson, T. D., & Gilbert, D. T. (2008). It’s a wonderful life: Mentally subtracting positive events improves people’s affective states, contrary to their affective forecasts. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 95(5), 1217–1224. 

To date, nearly half of the work supporting the efficacy of gratitude interventions did so by making contrasts with techniques that induce negative affect (e.g., record your daily hassles). Gratitude interventions have shown limited benefits, if any, over control conditions. Thus, there is a need to better understand whether gratitude interventions are beyond a control condition and if there exists a subset of people who benefit. People high in positive affect (PA) may have reached an 'emotional ceiling' and, thus, are less susceptible to experiencing gains in well-being. People lower in PA, however, may need more positive events (like expressing gratitude to a benefactor) to 'catch up' to the positive experiences of their peers. We examined if PA moderated the effects of a gratitude intervention where youth were instructed to write a letter to someone whom they were grateful and deliver it to them in person. Eighty-nine children and adolescents were randomly assigned to the gratitude intervention or a control condition. Findings indicated that youth low in PA in the gratitude condition, compared with youth writing about daily events, reported greater gratitude and PA at post-treatment and greater PA at the 2-month follow-up. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)

Froh, J. J., Kashdan, T. B., Ozimkowski, K. M., & Miller, N. (2009). Who benefits the most from a gratitude intervention in children and adolescents? Examining positive affect as a moderator. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 4(5), 408–422. 

Though interest in the emotion of gratitude has historically focused on its role in social exchange, new evidence suggests a different and more important role for gratitude in social life. The find-remind-and-bind theory of gratitude posits that the positive emotion of gratitude serves the evolutionary function of strengthening a relationship with a responsive interaction partner (Algoe, Haidt, & Gable, 2008). The current article identifies prior, economic models of gratitude, elaborates on unique features of the find-remind-and-bind theory, reviews the accumulating evidence for gratitude in social life in light of this novel perspective, and discusses how the find-remind-and-bind theory is relevant to methodology and hypothesis testing. In sum, within the context of reciprocally-altruistic relationships, gratitude signals communal relationship norms and may be an evolved mechanism to fuel upward spirals of mutually responsive behaviors between recipient and benefactor. In this way, gratitude is important for forming and maintaining the most important relationships of our lives, those with the people we interact with every day.

Algoe, S. B. (2012). Find, remind, and bind: The functions of gratitude in everyday relationships. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 6(6), 455–469. 

Gratitude is an emotional state and an attitude toward life that is a source of human strength in enhancing one's personal and relational well-being. In this article, the authors first explore the theological origins of gratitude as a virtue to be cultivated in the major monotheistic traditions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Each tradition emphasizes the development of gratitude as a path to a good life, and prescribes approaches for practicing. Gratitude is explored further in the context of psychological theory and research. Empirical research linking gratitude with well-being and goal attainment is presented and discussed. Finally, future research questions and a tentative research agenda are presented. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved)

Emmons, R. A., & Crumpler, C. A. (2000). Gratitude as a human strength: Appraising the evidence. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 19(1), 56–69. 

Why are certain character strengths more associated with life satisfaction than others? A sample of US adults (N ¼ 12,439) completed online surveys in English measuring character strengths, orientations to happiness (engagement, pleasure, and meaning), and life satisfaction, and a sample of Swiss adults (N ¼ 445) completed paper-and-pencil versions of the same surveys in German. In both samples, the character strengths most highly linked to life satisfaction included love, hope, curiosity, and zest. Gratitude was among the most robust predictors of life satisfaction in the US sample, whereas perseverance was among the most robust predictors in the Swiss sample. In both samples, the strengths of character most associated with life satisfaction were associated with orientations to pleasure, to engagement, and to meaning, implying that the most fulfilling character strengths are those that make possible a full life.

Peterson, C., Ruch, W., Beermann, U., Park, N., & Seligman, M. E. P. (2007). Strengths of character, orientations to happiness, and life satisfaction. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 2(3), 149–156. 

This study investigated relationships among proactive coping, positive emotions, and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptom severity for 182 undergraduate women with trauma histories. Participants were administered the Life Events Checklist (LEC), PTSD Checklist, Proactive Coping Inventory, Proactive Attitude Scale, General Perceived Self-Efficacy Scale, and measures of posttrauma gratitude and emotional growth. An Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) with proactive coping, proactive attitude, and self-efficacy items indicated a one-factor solution. The proactive coping style factor and posttrauma gratitude were independently negatively associated with current PTSD symptom level, above and beyond the effects of trauma severity, trauma history, and time elapsed since the trauma. The implications of these results for future research and understanding of the development of PTSD and its treatment are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)

Vernon, L. L., Dillon, J. M., & Steiner, A. R. W. (2009). Proactive coping, gratitude, and posttraumatic stress disorder in college women. Anxiety, Stress & Coping, 22(1), 117–127. 

Recent theory posits that the emotion of gratitude uniquely functions to build a high-quality relationship between a grateful person and the target of his or her gratitude, that is, the person who performed a kind action (Algoe et al., 2008). Therefore, gratitude is a prime candidate for testing the dyadic question of whether one person’s grateful emotion has consequences for the other half of the relational unit, the person who is the target of that gratitude. The current study tests the critical hypothesis that being the target of gratitude forecasts one’s relational growth with the person who expresses gratitude. The study employed a novel behavioral task in which members of romantic relationships expressed gratitude to one another in a laboratory paradigm. As predicted, the target’s greater perceptions of the expresser’s responsiveness after the interaction significantly predicted improvements in relationship quality over 6 months. These effects were independent from perceptions of responsiveness following two other types of relationally important and emotionally evocative social interactions in the lab, suggesting the unique weight that gratitude carries in cultivating social bonds. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved)

Algoe, S. B., Fredrickson, B. L., & Gable, S. L. (2013). The social functions of the emotion of gratitude via expression. Emotion, 13(4), 605–609. 

Gratitude and indebtedness are differently valenced emotional responses to benefits provided, which have implications for interpersonal processes. Drawing on a social functional model of emotions, we tested the roles of gratitude and indebtedness in romantic relationships with a daily-experience sampling of both members of cohabiting couples. As hypothesized, the receipt of thoughtful benefits predicted both gratitude and indebtedness. Men had more mixed emotional responses to benefit receipt than women. However, for both men and women, gratitude from interactions predicted increases in relationship connection and satisfaction the following day, for both recipient and benefactor. Although indebtedness may maintain external signals of relationship engagement, gratitude had uniquely predictive power in relationship promotion, perhaps acting as a booster shot for the relationship. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)

Algoe, S. B., Gable, S. L., & Maisel, N. C. (2010). It’s the little things: Everyday gratitude as a booster shot for romantic relationships. Personal Relationships, 17(2), 217–233. 

The purpose of these studies was to develop a valid measure of trait gratitude, and to evaluate the relationship of gratitude to subjective well-being (SWB). Four studies were conducted evaluating the reliability and validity of the Gratitude Resentment and Appreciation Test (GRAT), a measure of dispositional gratitude. This measure was shown to have good internal consistency and temporal stability. The GRAT was shown to relate positively to various measures of SWB. In two experiments, it was shown that grateful thinking improved mood, and results also supported the predictive validity of the GRAT. These studies support the theory that gratitude is an affective trait important to SWB.

Watkins, P. C., Woodward, K., Stone, T., & Kolts, R. L. (2003). Gratitude and happiness: Development of a measure of gratitude, and relationships with subjective well-being. Social Behavior and Personality: An International Journal, 31(5), 431–451. 

In four studies, the authors examined the correlates of the disposition toward gratitude. Study 1 revealed that self-ratings and observer ratings of the grateful disposition are associated with positive affect and well-being, prosocial behaviors and traits, and religiousness/spirituality. Study 2 replicated these findings in a large nonstudent sample. Study 3 yielded similar results to Studies 1 and 2 and provided evidence that gratitude is negatively associated with envy and materialistic attitudes. Study 4 yielded evidence that these associations persist after controlling for Extraversion/positive affectivity, Neuroticism/negative affectivity, and Agreeableness. The development of the Gratitude Questionnaire, a unidimensional measure with good psychometric properties, is also described. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)

McCullough, M. E., Emmons, R. A., & Tsang, J. A. (2002). The grateful disposition: A conceptual and empirical topography. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 82(1), 112–127. 

For those who are able-bodied, gratitude may well comprise a comfortable and unproblematic response to kindness, but for disabled people it can signify an unbearable state of perpetual obligation. A recent study which took a grounded theory approach to the exploration of the feelings of loss experienced by people living in Australia, New Zealand, the United States and the United Kingdom in response to becoming ‘disabled’ demonstrated that the prime distinguishing feature between those who were ultimately able to reconcile their need for support and those who continued to feel diminished by it was signified by the presence or absence of formal care arrangements. People who had access to paid personal assistants, whether through community-based services or the marketplace, tended to feel more comfortable and in control of their lives, while those who relied on the goodwill of others commonly experienced a great deal of shame and frustration in relation to their ongoing needs. It is argued here that those whose identities suffered from the experience of unrelenting reliance on informal care have effectively been disabled by their lack of access to the kinds of services which have the potential to remove the tendency to feel, and be constrained by, shame and irrevocable gratitude.

Galvin, R. (2004). Challenging the need for gratitude: Comparisons between paid and unpaid care for disabled people. Journal of Sociology, 40(2), 137–155. 

The emotion of gratitude is thought to have social effects, but empirical studies of such effects have focused largely on the repaying of kind gestures. The current research focused on the relational antecedents of gratitude and its implications for relationship formation. The authors examined the role of naturally occurring gratitude in college sororities during a week of gift-giving from older members to new members. New members recorded reactions to benefits received during the week. At the end of the week and 1 month later, the new and old members rated their interactions and their relationships. Perceptions of benefactor responsiveness predicted gratitude for benefits, and gratitude during the week predicted future relationship outcomes. Gratitude may function to promote relationship formation and maintenance.

Algoe, S. B., Haidt, J., & Gable, S. L. (2008). Beyond reciprocity: Gratitude and relationships in everyday life. Emotion, 8(3), 425–429. 

Close relationship partners often share successes and triumphs with one another, but this experience is rarely the focus of empirical study. In this study, 79 dating couples completed measures of relationship well-being and then participated in videotaped interactions in which they took turns discussing recent positive and negative events. Disclosers rated how understood, validated, and cared for they felt in each discussion, and outside observers coded responders’ behavior. Both self-report data and observational codes showed that 2 months later, responses to positive event discussions were more closely related to relationship well-being and break-up than were responses to negative event discussions. The results are discussed in terms of the recurrent, but often overlooked, role that positive emotional exchanges play in building relationship resources.

Gable, S. L., Gonzaga, G. C., & Strachman, A. (2006). Will you be there for me when things go right? Supportive responses to positive event disclosures. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 91(5), 904–917.