Daily Associations between Helping Behavior, Gratitude, and Selfishness in Members of Alcoholics Anonymous

ABSTRACT

The idea that helping others and practicing gratitude are associated with lower selfishness among members of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) is discussed in AA literature, in AA meetings, and among AA members. Despite an existing link between these constructs in psychological research and a strong emphasis on all 3 topics in AA literature, the relationships between these concepts have not been examined. AA helping behavior, gratitude, and selfishness were measured in 113 members of Alcoholics Anonymous in long term recovery (M = 7.63 years, SD = 9.17 years) over a period of 7 days. Multi-level modeling analysis confirmed that on days when AA members helped more people in AA, they were less selfish compared to days when they helped fewer people. Further, on days when AA members felt more grateful, they were also less selfish than on days when they felt less grateful. The associations remained regardless of gender, recovery time, or sponsor status. The study findings provide empirical support for the importance of helping behavior for members of AA and contribute to the rapidly growing body of literature on the benefits of gratitude for people in recovery.

KEYWORDS:

• Recovery
• prosocial behavior
• self-absorption
• alcoholism
• 12-step groups
• quantitative diary methods
• multilevel modeling

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Science Foundation [DGE 1256260.].