Nice Thinking! An Educational Intervention That Teaches Children to Think Gratefully

Abstract.

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.

Notes

This research was supported by a generous grant from The John Templeton Foundation (grant 23445). Jeffrey J. Froh and Giacomo Bono contributed equally to the study. Gratitude is extended to Sheldon Karnilow, Patrick Harrigan, Anthony Farinacci, Laura Seinfeld, Nancy Gaiman, Cara Riebe, and all of the teachers, parents, and students for their support with data collection. The authors are also thankful to Carolyn Saarni for her helpful comments on an earlier version of the manuscript and Jennifer Allen, Al-Jameela Youssef, and Terrance Wakely for their assistance with data collection.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jeffrey J. Froh

Jeffrey J. Froh, PsyD, received his PsyD in school psychology from St. John's University. His research interests are in the development, measurement, and enhancement of gratitude in children and adolescents. He is particularly excited about creating new school-based gratitude interventions for educators and mental health professionals.

Giacomo Bono

Giacomo Bono, PhD, received his PhD in social psychology from Claremont Graduate University. His research activities focus on determinants and outcomes associated with positive responses to interpersonal harms (forgiveness) and benefits (gratitude). He is now investigating the role of these strengths in positive youth development and resilience to better understand how healthy relationship functioning can better serve youth in terms of achievement and well-being.

Jinyan Fan

Jinyan Fan, PhD, received his PhD from The Ohio State University and is now an associate professor at the Psychology Department at Auburn University. His research activities focus on developing and assessing various interventions in the organizational setting that improve personnel selection decisions or facilitate new organizational members' adjustment processes and outcomes in the new environment.

Robert A. Emmons

Robert A. Emmons, PhD, is Professor of Psychology at the University of California, Davis. He received his PhD degree in personality and social ecology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He is Founding Editor and Editor-in-Chief of The Journal of Positive Psychology. His research focuses on the science and practice of gratitude and thankfulness, especially on the effect of gratitude on subjective well-being and human health and happiness, as well as on the development of gratitude in youth.

Katherine Henderson

Katherine Henderson, PsyD, received her PsyD in school psychology from Hofstra University. She practices school psychology and psychotherapy in New York.

Cheray Harris

Cheray Harris, MS, is currently a doctoral candidate in the School-Community Psychology program at Hofstra University. Her research interests include how to apply school-based positive psychology interventions to at-risk youth.

Heather Leggio

Heather Leggio, MS, is currently a doctoral candidate in the School-Community Psychology program at Hofstra University. Her research interests include positive psychology, gratitude, generosity, happiness, prosocial behavior, and the development of well-being in youth.

Alex M. Wood

Alex M. Wood, PhD, received his PhD in psychology from the University of Warwick. He is now a professor and director of the Behavioural Science Centre at Stirling Management School and the director of the Centre for Graduate Research in Management at the University of Stirling. His research links the behavioral sciences (such as psychology) with the social sciences (such as economics and management) to better understand connections among economic, psychological, and health outcomes and their determinants.