Enhancement of gratitude in the context of elite athletes: outcomes and challenges

ABSTRACT

Gratitude has been heralded as important to emotional, social and societal wellbeing. A burgeoning body of recent research on the positive impact of gratitude in sport calls for an investigation into its relevance to the field of elite sport, particularly for building resilience and enhancing relationships. An interpretivist/constructivist research approach was adopted to explore the practices, outcomes and challenges of gratitude of 10 Australian elite athletes – Olympians and Para-Olympians – who participated in a workshop on gratitude. Sports represented in this cohort included cycling, sailing, track and field, beach volleyball and diving. Semi-structured interviews were used to generate data, which were explored using content analysis. Enhancement of gratitude with the elite athletes resulted in the adoption of more meaningful and authentic gratitude towards others. Positive impact of gratitude expressed in this way was reported in the areas of improved attitude; greater awareness; better capacity to deal with stress; increased confidence to express gratitude; and enhanced performance. The paper also discusses the perceived challenges of expressing gratitude within this context.

KEYWORDS:

• Stress
• resilience
• coach-athlete relationships
• motivation
• positive psychology
• gratitude
• holistic development

Acknowledgments

The authors also acknowledge Prof Joan Chapman who assisted with the conceptualisation of the research.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Australian Institute of Sport, under Grant no.4152. The opinions expressed in this paper are those of the authors and not the Institute.

Notes on contributors

Kerry Howells

Kerry Howells is a senior lecturer in the Faculty of Education at the University of Tasmania. Kerry has been researching the role of gratitude in education for the past two decades and is now applying this research to the field of elite sport.

Noleine Fitzallen

Noleine Fitzallen is a senior lecturer in the Faculty of Education at the University of Tasmania. Noleine specialises in research in statistics education and STEAM education. She also has experience researching gratitude in teacher education.