A Qualitative Analysis · Further, while gratitude and forgiveness were positively correlated, grateful and forgiving adolescents also reported fewer depressive symptoms, feelings

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Chapter 1

DOI: 10.4018/978-1-5225-5918-4.ch001

ABSTRACT

Gratitude is important for social and emotional health. Research suggests that there is a relation between experiencing and expressing gratitude and happiness. The aim of this chapter is to review current research regarding gratitude development and happiness, adolescent gratitude development, and to discuss future recommendations. This chapter also discusses a study examining adolescent perspectives on the meaning of being thankful. To obtain adolescent perspectives on the meaning of being thankful, adolescents (N = 1,098) wrote essays describing what being thankful meant to them. Thematic analysis was used to identify and analyze themes within the essays. Percentiles were calculated for the most recurrent themes across essays (Appreciation = 54.07%, Family = 31.42%, Positive Emotions = 28.81%, Assistance/Support from Others = 25.99%, Friendship = 21.18%, and Downward Comparison = 16.60%). Understanding gratitude development in adolescents can aid in creating effective interventions, potentially increasing adolescent well-being and happiness.

INTRODUCTION

Gratitude is a construct that is highly valued across cultures, and in most cultures, there are different ways of expressing one’s thanks. But, how is gratitude defined? There is no single definitive definition. Gratitude has been conceptualized as, “a sense of thankfulness and joy in response to receiving a gift, whether the gift be a tangible benefit from a specific other or moment of peaceful bliss” (Emmons, 2004). Gratitude has also been viewed as “a moral virtue, an attitude, an emotion, a habit, a personality trait [and] a coping response” (Emmons & McCullough, 2003, p.377). Gratitude seems to create many

Gratitude and Happiness in Adolescents:A Qualitative Analysis

Rachel GottliebHofstra University, USA

Jeffrey FrohHofstra University, USA

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Gratitude and Happiness in Adolescents

positive benefits. For example, feeling grateful may remind people of a positive event, and expressing gratitude to others often strengthens relationships (Seligman, 2011). Reciprocation and helping others has also been linked to feelings of gratitude. “Gratitude opens your heart and carries the urge to give back-to do something good in return, either for the person who helped you or for someone else” (Fred-rickson, 2009 p. 41).

Happy people seem to flourish more internally and externally (Lyubomirsky, Sheldon, & Schkade, 2005). While we can identify happiness in ourselves or in another, defining happiness is more chal-lenging. What exactly is happiness? Happiness is defined in “terms of frequent positive affect, high life satisfaction, and infrequent negative affect” (Lyubomirsky et al., 2005). According to authentic happi-ness theory, happiness is the main component of positive psychology and consists of three subjective features—positive emotion, engagement, and meaning (Seligman, 2011). Similarly, the term happiness is itself a subjective measure of life satisfaction (Seligman, 2011). In comparison, Seligman’s well-being theory posits that one of the central topics of positive psychology is the construct of well-being (Selig-man, 2011). Positive emotion, engagement, relationships, meaning, and achievement are the measurable aspects that contribute to well-being (Seligman, 2011). Positive emotion consists of happiness and life-satisfaction (Seligman, 2011), and therefore happiness continues to play a part of positive psychology and optimal health and functioning.

This chapter has four main foci. First, the authors review previous research regarding gratitude devel-opment in adolescents in general, and more specifically, research regarding the many possible benefits that increasing gratitude can have for adolescents. Next, the authors discuss the relation between happi-ness and gratitude. The chapter then explores several issues, controversies, and problems related to the topic of gratitude in adolescents and provides a detailed description of unpublished research examining adolescent perspectives on the meaning of being thankful. Finally, the authors suggest applications for the future within the field of positive psychology. The aim of this chapter is to review current research as well as share new research regarding gratitude development and happiness, specifically within ado-lescence, and to discuss future recommendations.

BACKGROUND

Gratitude development in adults yields positive effects. In adults, gratitude is related to positive emotions and wellbeing, including the emotion of happiness (McCullough, Emmons, & Tsang, 2002). Further, there is a positive relation between gratitude and prosocial behavior (Ma, Tunney, & Ferguson, 2017), as well as a positive relation between gratitude development and subjective well-being (Emmons & McCullough, 2003). Gratitude is also incongruous with negative emotions and may even mitigate the presence of negative feelings, such as greed, envy, or anger (Lyubomirsky et al., 2005). In addition to gratitude’s positive effects on positive emotions and subjective well-being in adults, research has found that gratitude has a positive relation with health: the greater the gratitude, the better the health (Singh, Khan, & Osmany, 2014). Clinical trials suggest that gratitude can lower blood pressure and improve im-mune functions (Emmons, 2014; Emmons & Stern, 2013). Gratitude, therefore, seems to benefit people emotionally, physically, and socially.

While gratitude research with adults has exploded since 2000 with the popularization of positive psychology (Seligman & Csikszentmihalyi, 2000), there is a need for additional gratitude development research in adolescence (Froh & Bono, 2014). There have been, however, several studies that provide

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great insight into gratitude development among children and adolescents. In a study that asked school-aged children to describe what they were thankful for, the most common themes expressed were family, basic needs, friends, and teachers/school (Gordon, Musher-Eizenman, Holub, & Dalrymple, 2004). Some of the other themes expressed included pets/animals, God/church/religion, police/fire fighters/helpers, own life, and material objects (Gordon et al., 2004).

Two additional studies asked children and adolescents to write their greatest wish and explain what they would do for the individual who fulfilled that wish (Freitas, Pieta, & Tudge, 2011; Tudge, Freitas, Mokrova, Wang, & O’Brien, 2015). Results from these two studies suggest that children at different ages express gratitude differently. Findings suggest that adolescents are more likely to use connective gratitude, and younger children more often used concrete gratitude (Freitas et al., 2011; Tudge et al., 2015). Moreover, as children mature, they are more likely to consider benefactors and the larger com-munity in their expressions of gratitude (Tudge et al., 2015). Concrete gratitude occurs when children repay the benefactor with something they themselves appreciate; this does not necessarily coincide with something the benefactor would appreciate (Freitas et al., 2011). Alternatively, connective gratitude occurs when an individual considers the benefactor in deciding how to repay her; the individual gives the benefactor something the benefactor would appreciate, and the repayment is altruistic (Freitas et al., 2011). Connective gratitude, therefore, reflects adolescents’ ability to see beyond their own needs and wants to take the benefactor’s perspective.

Gratitude has many positive effects on an adolescent’s functioning. For example, gratitude in ado-lescents predicted higher GPAs, life satisfaction, social integration, and absorption (Froh, Emmons, Card, Bono, & Wilson, 2011). Gratitude also predicted lower levels of envy and depression (Froh et al., 2011). Another study indicated that in early adolescence, gratitude is positively correlated with positive emotions, including feeling pride, hope, inspiration, forgiveness, and excitement (Froh, Yurkewicz & Kashdan, 2009). Gratitude, therefore, seems integral for adolescent flourishing.

There are other positive aspects of adolescent development related to gratitude. In one study, middle school students’ perceptions of social support (parent and teacher support) were positively related to gratitude, and although uncertain from the cross-sectional design, social support may be an antecedent for gratitude (Reckart, Huebner, Hills, & Valois, 2017). These findings were consistent with an earlier study with adolescents which found a positive relation between gratitude and social support (Froh et al., 2009). Thus, gratitude seems to buoy adolescents’ social development.

Gratitude development in adolescents has also been linked to prosocial behavior (Froh et al., 2009). A recent 4-year longitudinal study, consisting of 566 adolescent participants, was conducted to exam-ine whether gratitude was associated with changes in social behavior (Bono, Froh, Disabato, Blalock, McKnight, & Bausert, 2017). Participants completed questionnaires at 4-time points spanning 4 years (Bono et al., 2017). After controlling for social desirability, age, socioeconomic status, and gender, the authors of the study found that increases in gratitude over time predicted increases in prosocial behavior over time and that increases in gratitude significantly predicted decreases in antisocial behavior over time (Bono et al., 2017).

In adolescence, there is a positive relation between gratitude and subjective well-being (Froh et al., 2009b). In one study, an intervention group received weekly gratitude intervention sessions over a 5- week period, while the control received neutral sessions (Khanna & Singh, 2016). The intervention produced significant effects on psychological well-being, positive affect, positive feelings, life satisfaction and gratitude (Khanna & Singh, 2016). Results from another study suggested that gratitude is positively

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related to school wellbeing and showed that gratitude’s positive effect on school wellbeing was partially mediated by materialism (Jiang, Sun, Liu, & Pan, 2016).

Forgiveness and gratitude has been studied with respect to their associations with other aspects of adolescent development. In recent studies among adolescents, gratitude and forgiveness positively cor-related with life-satisfaction, psychological wellbeing, and positive affect; gratitude and forgiveness negatively correlated with negative affect (Shourie & Kaur, 2016). Further, while gratitude and forgiveness were positively correlated, grateful and forgiving adolescents also reported fewer depressive symptoms, feelings of loneliness, and feelings of anger (Mary & Patra, 2015).

Researchers have suggested that there is a relation between experiencing and expressing gratitude and happiness (e.g., Margelino & Evangelista, 2015; Miller, 2006). One study found that the expression of gratitude affects the amount of happiness that both the expresser and the receiver of gratitude feel (Margelino & Evangelista, 2015). Another study found that in young adults, personality, psychological well-being, gratitude, and happiness were significantly positively correlated (Singh, Salve, & Shejwal, 2017). Additionally, psychological well-being, gratitude, and extraversion predict happiness in young adults (Singh et al., 2017). Further, life meaning, gratitude, self-esteem, attitude towards education, and positive affect had more of a positive impact on the happiness levels of very unhappy adolescents than on those of average adolescents (Proctor, Linley, & Maltby, 2010). Also, life meaning, gratitude, self-esteem, and positive affect had more of a positive impact on the happiness levels of very unhappy adolescents than on those of very happy adolescents (Proctor et al., 2010). Thus, very unhappy ado-lescents may experience the greatest positive gains in happiness from increasing these positive factors.

Gratitude has similarities to purpose, as both gratitude and purpose echo moral emotions (e.g., empathy and sympathy) (Malin, Liauw, & Damon, 2017). Gratitude and purpose both influence others outside of the self in a positive manner. For example, gratitude and purpose can impact prosocial behavior and strengthen relationships with other individuals (Malin et al., 2017). There are, however, slight distinctions between gratitude and purpose. A person experiencing gratitude notices and recognizes the benevolence of something beyond herself (Malin et al., 2017). Gratitude is spontaneous, whereas purpose is more future and goal-oriented; it involves acting on the behalf of something greater than oneself (Malin et al., 2017). Thus, although gratitude and purpose are not one and the same, both gratitude and purpose have a positive impact on individuals and on those with whom the individual interacts.

In an exploratory study, gratitude and the association of protective/risk factor behaviors were studied among African American adolescents (Ma, Kibler, & Sly, 2013). Results suggested that moral affect gratitude and life orientation gratitude were both related to positive family relationships (Ma et al., 2013). Moral affect gratitude can be viewed as gratitude connecting to moral behavior, which occurs when a person has concern for another human being (McCullough, Kilpatrick, Emmons, & Larson, 2001). Other researchers have suggested that gratitude is part of broader life orientation, involving the observation and appreciation of all that is positive in the world (Wood, Froh, & Geraghty, 2010). Greater life orientation gratitude was related to abstinence from risky behaviors (e.g., drug/alcohol use and/or sexual intimacy, intercourse), and greater moral affect gratitude was related to protective factors, such as academic and activity engagement (Ma et al., 2013). Thus, gratitude may have important implications regarding adolescent behavior.

Gratitude impacts many aspects of adolescent life. Research on gratitude development in adolescents has suggested that gratitude is related to forgiveness, happiness, subjective well-being, life satisfaction, prosocial behavior, and social support. Additionally, as children develop into adolescents, their expression of gratitude changes coinciding with their growth and maturity. They move from concrete to connective

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expressions of gratitude, where the adolescent considers the gift giver’s wants. These fascinating con-nections between gratitude and a multitude of positive aspects of adolescent development provide an abundance of opportunity for further exploration.

MAIN FOCUS OF THE CHAPTER

Issues, Controversies, and Problems

Although the amount of positive psychology research continues to grow, and specifically gratitude research, there continues to be a lack of gratitude research with adolescents. A PsychINFO literature search of abstracts including the terms “Gratitude” and “Adults” produced 203 papers. The number of papers produced was reduced to 103 for the terms “Gratitude” and “Adolescents,” and even more so for the terms “Gratitude” and “Adolescence,” producing only 11 papers. This suggests a need to better understand gratitude development in adolescents.

Positive Youth Development (PYD)

The developmental period of adolescence, where children begin to move into adulthood, is full of great change in the intellectual, physical, hormonal, and social realms (Arain et al., 2013). Adolescence can be a troubling time for some individuals (McCarthy, 2000). This aligns with the past definition of Positive Youth Development (PYD), which was based on a deficit model, relying on the “absence of adolescent problem behaviors” (Lerner et al., 2005). Mental health disorders in adolescents is widespread. Approxi-mately 20% of adolescents, ages 13-18, have or will have a serious mental health disorder (Merikangas et al., 2010). Research has suggested that approximately half of Americans will meet diagnostic criteria for a psychiatric illness at some point throughout their life, and often, beginning in either childhood or adolescence (Kessler, Berglund, Demler, Jin, Merikangas, & Walters, 2005). Although individuals with these disorders are certainly not fully mentally healthy, are individuals who do not have these disorders automatically healthy and happy? Just because someone does not feel depressed or anxious, display disruptive or violent behaviors or have intense mood swings, does not mean that person is living his or her life to its fullest. At best, they can be said to be stable. But stable is not flourishing (Keyes, 2005).

Currently, research on adolescent development has made a shift from defining PYD by measuring the absence of negative behaviors to measuring the presence of positive characteristics in adolescents (Lerner et al., 2005). Examining PYD from the context of looking at increasing positive characteristics rather than decreasing negative ones promotes teaching adolescents the necessary skills to experience lives filled with positive emotions, such as joy, gratitude, hope, love, and happiness, rather than only focusing on eliminating negative symptomatology. This is a welcomed change in the definition of PYD because PYD now takes into account a more complete range of experience and emotions in adolescents.

One study, although conducted with adults, supports the notion of viewing mental health from a posi-tive standpoint rather than just viewing mental health as the absence of mental illness (Keyes, 2005). Historically, the absence of mental illness was considered equivalent to the presence of mental health, suggesting the two are opposites. Mental health and mental illness, however, are not opposite sides of one bipolar continuum; instead, they form two distinct correlated continua. The results suggest that

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the presence of mental health is not the same as the absence of mental illness (Keys, 2005). Therefore, mental health should be explored as a separate entity.

Adolescent development must also be seen as a dynamic process. Lerner et al. (2005) discuss the importance of human development and plasticity. There is potential for change throughout the stages of development, as the relationships between the person and her biological, psychological, ecological, and historical function develop and change. Lerner and colleagues describe the bidirectional relationships between individuals and their multilevel context, which represent as plasticity (Lerner et al., 2005). Plasticity provides a hopeful view, showing the capacity for changes in human behavior, which may impact lives positively.

The Present Study

The chapter authors conducted a study measuring adolescent development from the context of looking at a positive characteristic, gratitude. The present study examines adolescent perspectives on the meaning of being thankful. During class time, adolescents were given the following instructions: “Please write a short essay about what being thankful means to you.” This prompt is broader than those used in the previously mentioned studies. Therefore, the authors expected to see a broader array of responses. This study was conducted to fill in some of the gaps in empirical research to contribute to the understanding of gratitude development in adolescents and potentially to aid in creating and implementing effective interventions to increase adolescent gratitude.

Participants were students from a public high school in Long Island, New York. Students in grades 9th through 12th participated in the study. Adolescents (N = 1,098) were asked to write short essays on what being thankful meant to them. Nine hundred fifty-eight essays were analyzed. Approximately 11% of participants opted out, and 1.7% of essays could not be analyzed (e.g., illegibility.) 1

Thematic analysis was used to identify and analyze essay themes. Specifically, we used inductive analysis, where the author codes the data without using “pre-existing coding frames” or “analytic pre-conceptions” (Braun & Clarke, 2006). The first author (RJG) coded the data individually. Afterward, a colleague reviewed and assessed a copy of the coded data; detailed discussions occurred when there were any disagreements, and discussions continued until an agreement was found. Coding is most often done by one individual, but it has been recommended that colleagues function as “rigorous examiners and auditors” of analysis (Saldana, 2016, p. 36-37).

Percentiles were calculated for the most recurrent themes across essays. Some essays contained mul-tiple themes. The most recurrent themes across essays were Appreciation (54.07%), Family (31.42%), Positive Emotions (e.g., happiness, pride, joy) (28.81%), Assistance/Support from Others (25.99%), Friendship (21.18%), and Downward Comparisons (16.60%). Several other themes that appeared less frequently included Basic Needs, Not Taking Things for Granted, Counting Blessings, Acceptance, Ac-complishments, and Religion.

Happiness was included in the theme of Positive Emotions. Many participants related “being thank-ful” to feeling happy. For example, one participant included the following statement: “Thankful is to be happy for what you are given, no matter what happens, bad or good, to be happy for living.” Another participant wrote, “It’s to be happy with what you have and feel good about it.” A third participant used these words to define being thankful: “It means to be happy with yourself and what is around you.” Such examples support previous research suggesting that gratitude is positively related to happiness (Margelino & Evangelista, 2015; Miller, 2006; Singh et al., 2017). Moreover, as in previous research

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with children, Family and Friendship were common themes (Gordon et al., 2004). For example, one participant included the following statement: “Motivation and support from my family is what I am most thankful for.” Another participant wrote, “It is important to say, ‘thank you’ and ‘I love you’ when you meant it and to realize that the greatest things in life are the friendships and relationships you have with others, not material goods.”

As previously addressed, there has been a lack of research on adolescent gratitude development and research examining adolescent development through a positive lens. Considering adolescents from a negative lens, where the absence of maladjustment in adolescence is considered healthy, does not allow society to examine adolescents who are not just “healthy” but who are also flourishing. What distinguishes the adolescents who are living lives full of positive emotions, such as joy, pride, and gratitude? What are they doing differently than adolescents who are maladjusted or than those who are not exhibiting negative symptomatology but are not flourishing?

Often, adolescents wrote that the meaning of being thankful relates to appreciation and/or to others (family and/or friends) and/or assistance/support from others. This suggests that adolescents who under-stand and express gratitude may be more appreciative in general than other adolescents. They may also be more aware of and appreciative of others, especially close family or friends who may provide them

Figure 1. Appreciation and Downward Comparison Essay. This figure is an essay completed by a par-ticipant that includes Appreciation and Downward Comparison themes.

Figure 2. Family, Friends, Positive Emotion, and Appreciation Essay. This figure is an essay completed by a participant that includes Family, Friends, Appreciation, and Positive Emotion (i.e., happiness) themes.

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Figure 3. Downward Comparison and Appreciation Essay. This figure is an essay completed by a par-ticipant that includes Downward Comparison and Appreciation themes.

Figure 4. Assistance/Support from Others essay. This figure is an essay completed by a participant that includes Assistance/Support from Others.

Figure 5. Positive Emotion and Assistance/Support from Others Essay. This figure is an essay completed by a participant that includes Positive Emotion (i.e., happiness) and Assistance/Support from Others.

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with support. This is consistent with research discussed above that suggests that gratitude is related to social support (Froh et al., 2009b).

Although the present study has contributed to the growing research on gratitude development in ado-lescents and aids in the understanding of gratitude development in adolescents from a positive lens, it fails to examine how gender, socioeconomic status, and age moderate gratitude development in adolescents. This is particularly important considering, for example, research has shown that while girls are more grateful than boys, boys may benefit more from expressing gratitude (Froh et al., 2009b). Considering issues associated with the development of gratitude can be useful in designing programs that foster gratitude (Freitas et al., 2011). More research is needed in this area. Examining themes generated in the present study may be helpful in choosing or designing programs that promote gratitude development. For example, a more in depth look at appreciation, the most common theme, may be a good place to

Figure 6. Positive Emotion, and Appreciation Essay. This figure is an essay completed by a participant that includes Appreciation and Positive Emotion (i.e., happiness and pride) themes.

Figure 7. Family, Positive Emotion, and Downward Comparison Essay. This figure is an essay completed by a participant that includes Family, Positive Emotion (i.e., happiness), and Downward Comparison themes.

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start. A longitudinal study looking at the changes in the ways in which appreciation is experienced and expressed over time through a child’s or adolescent’s development might assist in developing effective interventions to help adolescents gain more appreciation and more effectively express their appreciation.

Inhibitors of Gratitude

Because gratitude has a wide array of benefits for adults and adolescents, possible inhibitors of grati-tude should be explored. In our country, individuals search for happiness in a variety of ways (Emmons, 2014). Materialism is a popular form of searching for happiness; however, gratitude cannot be sustained in a highly materialistic society (Emmons, 2014). In one study, participants reported that materialism and envy inhibited the frequency of feeling grateful over time (Solom, Watkins, McCurrach, & Scheibe, 2017). When individuals believe that buying items creates happiness, they are less likely to pay atten-tion to their own blessings (Solom et al., 2017). Therefore, materialism is an inhibitor for gratitude that should be addressed.

Individuals who lack gratitude are often characterized as having an exorbitant sense of self-importance (Emmons, 2014). These individuals are often described as narcissistic (Emmons, 2014). A key ingredi-ent in narcissism is entitlement, and entitlement inhibits gratitude (Emmons, 2014). In a recent study, narcissism and cynicism were found to be strong inhibitors of gratitude (Solom et al., 2017). People who are narcissistic may not even be aware that they have received a gift because they feel as though that gift was something they deserved (Solom et al., 2017). When people are cynical regarding others, they are most likely to distrust the motives of others (Solom et al., 2017). People who are narcissistic, cynical, or materialistic may have more difficulty buying into gratitude interventions (Solom et al., 2017). Therefore, when planning to introduce gratitude interventions with clients, it may be beneficial to assess gratitude inhibitors, such as narcissism, cynicism, and materialism, and begin interventions targeting the inhibitors before targeting gratitude (Solom et al., 2017).

SOLUTIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Scholars should continue to tackle the lack of research on adolescent gratitude development and continue to research positive characteristics of adolescent development. This will, in turn, aid in the understand-ing of gratitude development and in the choice and creation of effective gratitude and other positive psychology interventions to promote flourishing adolescents. The more knowledge that is gained from research on adolescent gratitude development, the more information acquired that can be shared with practitioners. Interventions could be created to increase specific areas that may increase gratitude and other aspects that are related to gratitude. Practitioners should implement the evidence-based interven-tions to help adolescents live lives full of positive emotions (e.g., happiness). One avenue to reach as many adolescents as possible is to provide these interventions in the school setting. Since students spend a major portion of their weekdays in school, the school setting provides ample opportunity for gratitude interventions. Teachers trained in intervention implementation would be able to intervene on school-wide, class-wide, small group, and individual levels.

Research suggests that counting blessings interventions can be beneficial when conducted in the school setting. In one study, the gratitude condition consisted of participants writing as many as five things they were grateful for since the previous day (Froh, Sefick, Robert, & Emmons, 2008). Results

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suggested a relationship between counting blessings each school day for 2 weeks and both optimism and life satisfaction, and counting blessings daily has been demonstrated to improve overall subjective well-being (Froh et al., 2008). This intervention is easy to implement and can be done with large groups of adolescents. The second author (JJF) conducted a gratitude intervention with about 1,000 middle school students in their homerooms while practicing as a school psychologist. They were asked to count up to five blessings they were grateful for on a daily basis for 2 weeks. After the intervention, teachers followed a lesson plan using the focused conversation method of teaching (Nelson, 2001). They asked students the following types of questions: Objective (e.g., What specific blessings did you count?), Reflective (e.g., What did you like most about counting your blessings?), Interpretive (e.g., What are the benefits of giving thanks?), and Decisional (e.g., How can we practice gratitude in our lives and at school?).

Anecdotally speaking, students seemed to benefit from counting blessings. Some students reported recognizing that “life could be so much worse.” One student, who was from a wealthy family, stated “I realized how good I really have it. Some kids have nothing. I just never thought about it before.” This is just one of the many creative ways we think youth can be taught to experience and express gratitude. Another option is to dedicate a specific time of year (e.g., a certain month) to expressing gratitude to others. For instance, students can write a thank you card each week for a gift received, such as by another student (e.g., protecting them from a bully), an administrator (e.g., supporting a class trip to a museum), a teacher (e.g., waiting with them until their parents arrive at school to pick them up), or support staff (e.g., ensuring the heat works during the cold winter months). Given the ease of inducing gratitude, its potential for making school tasks and exercises more creative, and its benefits to individuals and their environments, gratitude interventions for youth, in our view, should be seriously considered by those interested in fostering positive youth development.

Counting blessings interventions can also be conducted in the comfort of one’s own home. Seligman (2011) recommends that individuals take ten minutes before bedtime to “write down three things that went well today and why they went well.” Seligman noted that although the exercise may feel uncom-fortable when first starting out, most individuals who complete this exercise become less depressed and happier after 6 months (Seligman, 2011).

Another evidence based intervention is called a “gratitude visit.” Froh, Kashdan, Ozimkowski, and Miller (2009a) conducted a study using this type of intervention. Students wrote letters to someone whom they did not properly thank previously. Afterward, the students were required to read their letter aloud to that person. The authors provided an example of a letter that a 17-year-old female adolescent wrote to her mother. The letter stated:

I would like to take this time to thank you for all that you do on a daily basis and have been doing my whole life… I am so thankful that I get to drive in with you [to school] every day and…for all the work you do for our church… I thank you for being there whenever I need you. I thank you that when the world is against me that you stand up for me and you are my voice when I can’t speak for myself. I thank you for caring about my life and wanting to be involved… for the words of encouragement and hugs of love that get me through every storm. I thank you for sitting through countless games in the cold and rain and still having the energy to make dinner and all the things you do. I thank you for raising me in a Christian home where I have learned who God was and how to serve him… I am so blessed to have you as my mommy and I have no idea what I would have done without you.

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Participants were asked to share their experience with their peers who were randomly assigned to the same condition. Results suggested that students who experienced the greatest gains from the gratitude interventions were those who were initially low in positive emotions; those students reported higher levels of gratitude and positive emotions after the intervention was administrated. Two months later, these same participants reported experiencing significantly more positive emotions compared to participants in the control condition (Froh et al., 2009a). According to Seligman (2011), a person feels happier and less depressed one month after completing a “gratitude visit.” Thus, implementing a “gratitude visit” intervention may have a lasting positive impact.

One intervention conducted by Froh et al. (2014) that increased gratitude did so by training partici-pants’ benefit appraisals. Participants ranged in age from 8-11 years. Classrooms were randomly as-signed to either a school-based gratitude curriculum or to an attention-control curriculum. Five sessions were taught by school psychologist interns. The first session was an introduction. Next, interns helped participants to understand the intentions behind a benefactors’ helpful actions. Session 3 consisted of learning to understand the benefactor’s experience of cost when providing benefits. Interns then taught participants to understand the benefits of obtaining a gift that they received from a benefactor. The final session consisted of the review and summary of the content presented to them in the previous lessons. Lessons were taught with various teaching methods, including discussions, opportunities to role play, and having participants document personal experiences in a “gratitude journal.” In addition, interns high-lighted the links between positive occurrences in the participants’ lives and the actions of a benefactor. The structure of the attention-control sessions was similar to those of the gratitude condition regarding type of assignment but not content; content in the control sessions was neutral (Froh et al., 2014).

Two different studies were conducted using the above intervention. Results suggested that children can be taught have a greater awareness of their social-cognitive appraisals regarding their experiences as beneficiaries, which resulted in an increase in gratitude and in wellbeing. A daily intervention dem-onstrated these effects 2 days later, while a weekly intervention demonstrated these effects up to up to 5 months later. These two studies are good examples of gratitude development interventions that can easily be implemented into the school (Froh et al., 2014).

There are already several evidence-based gratitude interventions. These are wonderful starting points, but there remains a need for additional research on gratitude development in adolescents, so that additional effective interventions can be created and implemented. The educational environment may be an ideal venue for implementing such interventions because of the opportune access to adolescents that schools provide.

FUTURE RESEARCH DIRECTIONS

There has been a recent growth in the volume of research regarding gratitude development in adoles-cents; however, additional research in this area would be beneficial. One area for future research might include a focus on moderators. These could include gender, age, or socioeconomic status, for example.

One area of interest might be examining whether essay themes differ across genders. Could focusing on gender differences help determine whether interventions need to be differentiated for females and males? Results from the Gordon et al. (2004) study, examining themes of school-aged children’s written responses to the question of what they are thankful for, suggest that there are differences among boys and girls. Girls expressed more thanks for family, friends, teachers, and rescue workers and helpers, pets,

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religion, and other people (excluding family, friends, and teachers) (Gordan et al., 2004). Therefore, while gender differences have been shown to exist in the themes expressed in children’s perception of gratitude, research needs to be done to see if these same differences in themes exists among adolescents.

Previous research that examined mediating effects of positive and negative affect on the relation between gratitude and life satisfaction in late adolescence suggested that positive affect and negative affect fully mediated the relation between gratitude and life satisfaction (Sun & Kong, 2013). The study indicated that gratitude is associated with more positive affect in males, and females with lower negative affect scores were found to have comparatively greater life satisfaction than males (Sun & Kong, 2013). One suggestion for future research is to look at this relationship between gratitude and positive and negative affect from a qualitative standpoint. For example, adolescents (males and females) could write essays, participate in focus groups, or interviews, and researchers could take into account gender differences. Additionally, peer relationships and social support were associated with higher levels of gratitude in boys, while in girls, experiencing school violence predicted less gratitude (Choi & Yu, 2014). For both boys and girls, positive identity plays a key role in gratitude disposition (Choi & Yu, 2014). Together, these data suggest that there are several differences in the way that males and females develop gratitude, but there are also some similarities.

Although the present study looked at gratitude development in high school students in grades 9-12, future research should examine whether themes differ by age. Do themes in the essays written by students who have not yet reached 9th grade differ from those themes found in essays written by older students, for example, in the 12th grade? Previous research suggests that children at different ages express gratitude differently (Freitas et al., 2011; Tudge et al., 2015).

When examining the themes within the essays that school-aged children wrote regarding what they feel thankful for, variations appeared at different ages (Gordon et al., 2004). The older children voiced more gratitude than the younger children concerning family, friends, teachers, rescue workers, events and holidays, and life (Gordon et al., 2004). Several of these themes reference other people. The authors suggest that because younger individuals tend to be more thankful for materialistic items, the more mature sense of thankfulness for others that is demonstrated in older children may be an indication of a decrease in egocentrism and a greater interest in the importance of interpersonal relationships (Gordon et al., 2004). The authors do point out that the older children are more developed and are more capable of writing longer essays, which may have enabled them to list more things that they are thankful for than the younger children (Gordon et al., 2004).

Looking at adolescents from different socioeconomic backgrounds would be beneficial. In the present study, one of the major themes indicated was downward comparisons. Most participants in this sample come from affluent backgrounds. Previous research suggested that adolescents of lower socioeconomic status reported higher gratitude than adolescents of higher socioeconomic status, suggesting that, at times, wealthier adolescents do not feel as grateful (Choi & Yu, 2014). Perhaps participants from middle class and low socioeconomic status may define the meaning of being thankful differently than those from an affluent community. If so, interventions that foster gratitude growth would need to be differentiated for communities of different socioeconomic statuses. More research is needed in this area.

Another potential area for future research would be examining the inhibitors of gratitude and their influence in more detail. It might be productive to conduct a study with adolescents who score high on materialism or other inhibitors of gratitude. Interventions can be created to address these inhibitors (e.g., materialism). In one study, participants consisted of highly materialistic adolescents from the United States (Kasser et al., 2014). Adolescents received an intervention that was based on an established finan-

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cial curriculum, which included parental involvement (Kasser et al., 2014). Results suggested that the adolescents who were highly materialistic at the start of the study and received the intervention showed decreases in materialism and increases in self-esteem compared to a control group (Kasser et al., 2014). Once inhibitors are addressed, it would be interesting to see if these adolescents become more responsive to gratitude interventions than those who do not receive interventions targeting gratitude inhibitors. These types of studies would provide valuable information for practitioners who are an interested in increasing gratitude and other positive characteristic in adolescents.

CONCLUSION

Gratitude is a critical part of an adolescent’s healthy development. The experience and expression of gratitude may promote appreciation, positive emotion, social support, and overall subjective well-being. Although gratitude has been shown to relate to positive youth development, research on adolescent grati-tude development is still in the beginning stages. We have sought to review the literature on gratitude and happiness and to introduce a qualitative study examining adolescents’ definitions of what it means to be thankful to expand the knowledge base on gratitude in adolescents. We also reviewed literature on evidence-based interventions to offer possible recommendations for practitioners working with adolescents in the schools that would support increases in felt and expressed gratitude as well as other aspects of positive youth development. Gratitude positively impacts areas of fundamental importance to adolescents. Thus, developing gratitude interventions in educational settings could potentially improve adolescent psychological health.

The present study has shown that when adolescents think about the meaning of thankfulness, ap-preciation of others (family and friends) and the assistance/support they’ve received from others comes to mind. Therefore, grateful adolescents may be more appreciative in general and, more specifically, to others than their peers who do not have as deep of an understanding of gratitude. One possible conclu-sion that can be drawn from this relation between gratitude and appreciation is that fostering a sense of gratitude in adolescents may help adolescents develop more positive feelings about their relationships. Parents can help by fostering gratitude and appreciation in the home. Parents can be mindful of their own responses and can model the expression of gratitude and appreciation for family members and for others they interact with in the community. Parents can also positively reinforce the same behaviors in their children.

The school environment is another place where gratitude development can be encouraged. Grati-tude interventions could be implemented into existing school curricula utilizing implicit techniques. In English class, for example, teachers could ask questions or facilitate discussion relating to characters’ experiences or expressions of gratitude within specific texts. These implicit techniques can be applied to history class as well, during lessons analyzing important events that have shaped the course of his-tory and society. Gratitude and other positive education exercises could be implemented in art classes as well. For example, students could create positivity portfolios. Students would be asked to collect items that inspire positive feelings and emotions and look at their portfolios whenever they felt they needed an emotional lift (Fredrickson, 2009).

Across curricula, teachers could create classroom environments that would stimulate expressions of gratitude. Teachers could reinforce acts of kindness in their classrooms and model positive responses in multitudes of situations. Increased exposure to such responses and reinforcement of supportive ex-

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changes promote the development of gratitude. These practices could have a broad impact, creating a more positive whole-school environment.

Gratitude, a critical component of health for adolescents, need not be left to develop on its own. Parents, teachers, and community members can—and should!—look for opportunities to model and reinforce behaviors that reflect the expression of gratitude and appreciation. Sometimes, there are inhibi-tors of gratitude that must be addressed before gratitude interventions are undertaken. This will ensure the greatest effectiveness of these interventions. A solid understanding and expression of gratitude will serve adolescents well as they navigate through this trying developmental stage.

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ADDITIONAL READING

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KEY TERMS AND DEFINITIONS

Concrete Gratitude: When reciprocating, the person does not consider the benefactor but, instead, gives something to the gift-giver that the person himself appreciates.

Connective Gratitude: When reciprocating, the person considers the benefactor by choosing some-thing that the benefactor will appreciate.

Downward Comparison: Comparing one’s self to others who are less fortunate.Gratitude Visit: An intervention where a person writes a letter to someone whom he did not properly

thank previously. Afterward, the person who had written the letter, reads his letter aloud to the person that he is thanking.

Happiness: A subjective measure of life-satisfaction, including high positive affect and low nega-tive affect.

Life Orientation Gratitude: A view of gratitude as being part of a broader life orientation, involving the observation and appreciation of all that is positive in the world.

Materialism: When people place importance on material items, even believing that the gaining of material items can provide them with increased happiness.

Moral Affect Gratitude: A view of gratitude as connecting to moral behavior, which occurs when a person has concern for another human being.

ENDNOTE

1 Although all essays were made available, due to a data entry error, gender and age were unable to be linked to the participant who wrote the essay.

A Qualitative Analysis · Further, while gratitude and forgiveness were positively correlated, grateful and forgiving adolescents also reported fewer depressive symptoms, feelings

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