School Psychology Review,
2014, Volume 43, No. 2, pp. 132–152
Nice Thinking! An Educational Intervention That
Teaches Children to Think Gratefully
Jeffrey J. Froh
Hofstra University
Giacomo Bono
California State University, Dominguez Hills
Jinyan Fan
Auburn University
Robert A. Emmons
University of California, Davis
Katherine Henderson, Cheray Harris, and Heather Leggio
Hofstra University
Alex M. Wood
University of Stirling
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.
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.
Correspondence regarding this article should be addressed to Jeffrey J. Froh, Department of Psychology,
Hofstra University, 210 Hauser Hall, Hempstead, NY 11549; e-mail: Jeffrey.Froh@ hofstra.edu.
132
Nice Thinking
Offering and receiving help are fundamental to healthy development and thriving.
The fact that children become involved in
beneficial social exchanges even before they
are able to understand or fully appreciate them
underscores the importance of altruism and
cooperation for social development. Traditionally, gratitude has been considered a central
emotion for altruism and cooperation in human society (Smith, 1790/1976) because it
enables people to notice, understand, and capitalize off of beneficial exchanges with others
(McCullough, Kimeldorf, & Cohen, 2008). Indeed, individual differences in experiencing
gratitude are uniquely related to well-being
(Wood, Joseph, & Maltby, 2009), the development of positive relationships (Algoe,
Haidt, & Gable, 2008; Froh, Bono, & Emmons, 2010), greater appreciation of social
resources (McCullough, Emmons, & Tsang,
2002), and more use of social support coping
(Wood, Joseph, & Linley, 2007). Thus, gratitude is essential to relationships, social life,
and well-being (Wood, Froh, & Geraghty,
2010), and promoting it in youth may support
social development.
The main questions addressed by this
study are as follows: Can children be taught to
think gratefully? If so, does sensitizing children to the nuances of beneficial social exchanges help instill feelings of gratitude in
them? If children can be taught to experience
gratitude early on, as soon as it is possible
developmentally, then this may promote positive social development and help bring about
many successful outcomes throughout their
lives. This study examines whether a new
gratitude intervention that targets appraisals of
beneficial social exchanges is an efficacious
way to increase gratitude and well-being in
children around the time of middle childhood,
when gratitude is thought to solidify (Emmons
& Shelton, 2002; Graham, 1988).
Theoretical Framework
Research suggests that specific cognitions cause gratitude, and we targeted these in
this study. People feel grateful when they acknowledge receiving an intentional act of
kindness from a benefactor (Buck, 2004;
Figure 1. Theoretical framework for
gratitude intervention and effects.
Heider, 1958; Weiner, Russell, & Lerman,
1979). Specifically, they experience gratitude
in response to benefits that (a) they perceive as
valuable to them, (b) were provided intentionally and altruistically (rather than for ulterior
motives), and (c) were costly to the benefactor
(Tesser, Gatewood, & Driver, 1968; Wood,
Maltby, Stewart, Linley & Joseph, 2008).
Finding that individual differences in these
three dimensions could explain why people
higher in trait gratitude experience grateful
affect in response to receiving prosocial acts,
Wood et al. (2008) suggested that changing
one’s cognitions may help increase the frequency and intensity with which people experience gratitude and its concomitant social and
well-being benefits. This notion is consistent
with the cognitive therapy approach of changing automatic thoughts to increase desirable
therapeutic outcomes and well-being (Beck,
1976). Thus, we hypothesize that strengthening these cognitions will lead to increases in
gratitude, as well as theoretically expected
changes in behavior (i.e., thanking or reciprocation of prosocial behavior) and emotional
well-being (see Figure 1). We provide the first
test of an intervention using this approach, in
children aged 8 –11 years.
Psychology of Gratitude in Youth
Increasing gratitude during middle
childhood may be especially advantageous because this is when children make rapid advances in having mutually beneficial interactions with others and in forming supportive
social relationships (Wentzel, Barry, &
Caldwell, 2004). Gratitude is important in social life because it supports exchange-based
relationships but also communal relationships,
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School Psychology Review, 2014, Volume 43, No. 2
strengthening ties to responsive interaction
partners (Algoe, 2012).
Except for isolated studies that preceded
current knowledge (e.g., Baumgarten-Tramer,
1938), research on youth gratitude is in its
infancy. However, evidence so far shows that
many of the social and psychological benefits
found with adults also occur with youth (for a
review, see Bono, Froh, & Forrett, in press).
For instance, adolescents aged 11–13 years
who were more grateful also reported giving
more emotional support and experiencing
more positive affect, social support from peers
and family, optimism, and satisfaction across
many life domains (school, family, friends,
community, and self) compared with less
grateful adolescents (Froh, Yurkewicz, &
Kashdan, 2009). Moreover, adolescents aged
14 –19 years who were more grateful reported
not only greater life satisfaction, academic
achievement, absorption in activities, and social integration (or using one’s strengths to
help others and society) but also less envy,
depression, and materialism (Froh, Emmons,
Card, Bono, & Wilson, 2011). Many of these
associations are supported longitudinally as
well, showing links to improved psychological
and social functioning 6 months (Froh et al.,
2010) and 4 years (Bono, Froh, & Emmons,
2012) later.
Life satisfaction, well-being, and strong
social ties are critical for youths’ adjustment,
bonding to school, and achievement (Huebner,
Suldo, & Gilman, 2006). Thus, teaching children how to be more grateful supports the primary goals of school psychologists, teachers,
and other professionals who work with youth.
Interventions to Increase Gratitude
in Youth
Only two interventions have been conducted with youth. In one study, children
(aged 8 –19 years) from a parochial school
were randomly assigned to a control condition
or a gratitude-visit condition (Froh, Kashdan,
Ozimkowski, & Miller, 2009). That is, they
wrote about mundane daily experiences or
they wrote and then read a thank-you letter to
a person they needed to thank. Findings indi134
cated that youth in the gratitude condition who
were also low in positive affect reported more
gratitude and positive affect at posttreatment
and more positive affect at the 2-month follow-up compared with youth in the control
condition.
In another intervention study, Froh, Sefick, and Emmons (2008) randomly assigned 11 classrooms of sixth- and seventhgraders (aged 11–14 years) to one of three
conditions: gratitude, hassles, or a control
(similar to the previously mentioned intervention). Students in the gratitude condition listed
five things for which they were grateful, and
those in the hassles condition listed five things
that irritated them. The intervention ran daily
for 2 weeks, and data were collected immediately at posttest and again 3 weeks later. The
results showed that listing blessings led to
more optimism, higher life satisfaction, and
less negative affect, compared with listing
hassles. Moreover, students who reported feeling grateful for having received aid in school
reported more positive affect at posttest, a
pattern that was stronger 3 weeks later. Gratitude for aid received mediated the relationship between the intervention and general
gratitude. Finally, students who listed blessings reported more school satisfaction at posttest and at the 3-week follow-up compared
with students in the hassles or control group.
This last finding is significant because
dissatisfaction with school is a problem for
many middle and high school students (Huebner, Valois, Paxton, & Drane, 2005), and
school satisfaction is related to academic and
social success (Verkuyten & Thijs, 2002).
Therefore, it appears that acknowledging benefits, like receiving help from others, is an
effective way to promote gratitude in adolescents. Gratitude, in turn, may help counter
negative appraisals of the academic experience (i.e., school satisfaction) and perhaps
thereby improve students’ school bonding and
social adjustment.
Gratitude interventions for youth that
operate through directly changing cognitions
about the social exchange of benefits may be
more effective than simply listing blessings
because they impart social skills that can be
Nice Thinking
immediately applied to social life. This may
be especially helpful with younger children,
whose cognitive abilities and social skills are
still maturing.
Study 1: Intervention Using a Daily
Benefit-Appraisal Curriculum
In the first study we piloted structured
lesson plans intended to educate students
about the social-cognitive appraisals involved
in circumstances of receiving benefits from
others. The intervention was delivered daily
for 1 week. The benefit-appraisal curriculum
was compared with an attention-control curriculum in which students focused on mundane social activities that were emotionally
neutral. A quasi-experimental design was used
whereby classrooms were randomly assigned
to one condition or the other. The treatment
and control conditions were kept comparable
in terms of the tasks and structure of the information sessions and quantity and quality of
attention from interventionists; they differed
only in terms of the content of the information
sessions.
Dependent measures of benefit appraisals and gratitude were collected 2 days before
the intervention and 2 days after the intervention concluded. A behavioral measure of gratitude (i.e., writing thank-you cards) was also
obtained at posttest. We hypothesized that the
intervention would increase students’ benefit
appraisals, levels of gratitude, and thanking
behavior.
Method in Study 1
Participants
This convenience sample included 122
elementary school students (mean age ⫽ 9.03
years, SD ⫽ 0.33 years, range ⫽ 8 –10 years)
in six classes. Cohen (1992) suggests that with
␣ set at .05 and assuming a medium effect
size, we would need 64 students in each condition (N ⫽ 128). Students were in fourth
grade within an affluent district (district median household income for a four-person family ⫽ $115,440, state median household income for a four-person family ⫽ $83,036).
Most were White (68%) and about half were
boys (48.4%). Per the New York State Report
Card website for the year we collected data,
94% of fourth-grade students (the same grade
as those who participated in our study) demonstrated an understanding or a thorough understanding of the content for the English
language arts state examination that is expected for the subject and grade level
(https://reportcards.nysed.gov/).
Curricula Administration
The curricula were implemented by
three school psychology graduate students (interns) who were interested in gaining additional applied experience working with children in schools. The fifth author (K.H.) trained
the interns in both curricula by reviewing all
curricula material with them until all questions
were answered. K.H. was available daily to
meet with the interns during the intervention
phase to answer any questions. The interns
and teachers were kept blind to the study’s
purpose by being told that the study’s purpose
was to test the effectiveness of a social– emotional curriculum (gratitude was never mentioned during the training, conversations with
teachers, or intervention). By use of stratified
random assignment, each intern was randomly
assigned to one classroom in the benefit-appraisal condition and one classroom in the
attention-control condition. A coin toss was
used to decide which intern went with which
classroom.
The numbers of students assigned to the
treatment condition (n ⫽ 62) and control condition (n ⫽ 60) were comparable, as was instruction time (i.e., 30 min daily for one week,
Monday–Friday). Participants received raffle
tickets for doing the homework activities, and
after the intervention, one child from each
classroom won a $10 gift certificate.
Treatment condition. Students in the
treatment condition received instruction on the
social-cognitive perceptions that elicit gratitude (i.e., benefit appraisals). Structured lesson
plans adhered to the following outline: the
introduction (Session 1); understanding a
benefactor’s intention behind helping a bene135
School Psychology Review, 2014, Volume 43, No. 2
ficiary (Session 2); understanding the cost experienced by benefactors when giving a benefit (Session 3); understanding the benefits of
receiving a gift bestowed by a benefactor (Session 4); and the review/summary, which incorporated all components of the previous sessions (Session 5). The lessons included classroom discussions, writing assignments, and
role-playing activities.
Attention-control condition. Students in the attention-control condition also
received similarly structured lesson plans.
However, the content of the lessons focused
on emotionally neutral topics, such as daily
student activities. See the Appendix for a comparison of these two curricula.
Measures
Benefit-appraisal vignettes (i.e.,
grateful thinking). Three vignettes were
created to measure the social-cognitive perceptions underlying gratitude (i.e., intent, cost,
and benefit; Tesser et al., 1968; Wood et al.,
2008). The vignettes depicted three different
helping situations in which students imagined
themselves as the main character in the stories.
After each story, students were asked to respond to four questions. Questions for each
vignette were tailored to the respective benefactor (i.e., sister, friend, and parent) and situation (i.e., help studying, lending cleats to
play soccer, and sharing a computer); all three
appraisal dimensions were assessed in each
vignette. Using sister as an example, the questions were as follows: “How much did your
sister help you on purpose?” (intent; response
options ranged from 1, not at all on purpose,
to 5, totally on purpose); “How much did your
sister give up to help you?” (cost; response
options ranged from 1, gave up nothing, to 5,
gave up a great deal); and “How much did
your sister quizzing you help you?” (benefit;
response options ranged from 1, not at all
helpful, to 5, a great deal of help). The last
question for each vignette asked how thankful
students would feel toward the benefactor
(gratitude; response options ranged from 1,
very slightly or not at all, to 5, extremely).
When analyzed, this fourth item was exam136
ined separately for purposes of examining
construct validity.
Following the procedure of Wood et al.
(2008), we summed the three items intending
to measure the social-cognitive determinants
of gratitude across the three vignettes to create
a benefit-appraisal composite composed of
nine items that reflects the total score on intent, cost, and benefit. Confirmatory factor
analyses (CFAs) were conducted to examine
the construct validity of this measure. At both
preintervention and postintervention points,
CFAs yielded perfect model fits, which was
not surprising because these models were saturated. More importantly, factor loadings were
large and significant. At preintervention, standardized factor loadings ranged between 0.55
and 0.72; at postintervention, standardized
factor loadings ranged between 0.60 and 0.84.
In this sample, ␣ for the nine-item benefitappraisal composite was 0.80 (pretest) and
0.83 (posttest).
Initial pilot testing affirmed the psychometric properties of the benefit-appraisal composite. Specifically, 39 students (mean
age ⫽ 10.38 years, SD ⫽ 0.91 years, range ⫽
9 –12 years) completed the vignettes, as well
as the Gratitude Adjective Checklist (GAC)
(McCullough et al., 2002). The nine-item benefit appraisal showed good internal consistency (␣ ⫽ 0.86). Support for construct validity was provided by strong correlations with
(a) a mean score on the three gratitude items
from the vignettes (i.e., “How thankful would
you feel?”), r ⫽ 0.74, p ⬍ .001, and (b) GAC
scores, r ⫽ 0.47, p ⫽ .004. These findings
indicate that the benefit-appraisal composite is
related to grateful thinking toward a benefactor and overall gratitude.
Grateful mood.
The GAC (McCullough et al., 2002) asks people to rate how
grateful, thankful, and appreciative they are on
a scale from 1 (very slightly or not at all) to 5
(extremely). To measure gratitude as a mood,
participants rated the amount they experienced
each of these three emotions “during the past
few weeks” (cf. Froh, Yurkewicz, & Kashdan,
2009). In the current sample, the GAC showed
sufficient internal consistency (␣ ⫽ 0.70 at
Nice Thinking
pretest and ␣ ⫽ 0.74 at posttest), with levels
comparable with the level of the pilot sample
of 9- to 12-year-olds (␣ ⫽ 0.77). The GAC has
been used to assess gratitude as a trait, mood,
or emotion, depending on the timeframe in the
directions (Froh, Miller, & Snyder, 2007). It
shows good internal consistency (␣ ⫽ 0.78 –
0.88; Froh et al., 2008) and construct validity
with adolescent samples, yielding low to moderate positive correlations with optimism
(r ⫽ 0.35), contentment (r ⫽ 0.21), and life
satisfaction (r ⫽ 0.37) and stronger correlations with positive affect (r ⫽ 0.63; Froh,
Yurkewicz, & Kashdan, 2009). Although
other dispositional measures of gratitude exist
for older populations (e.g., Gratitude Questionnaire-6; McCullough et al., 2002), the
GAC was used for this study because when it
was being conducted, this was the only validated gratitude scale for children (see Froh et
al., 2007, for a review). The GAC and Gratitude Questionnaire-6 have since been found to
be correlated at 0.58 for 10- to 11-year-olds
(Froh, Fan, Emmons, Bono, Huebner, & Watkins, 2011).
Behavioral measure of gratitude. On
the Monday after the intervention phase, the
Parent–Teacher Association (PTA) provided a
multimedia presentation to the entire student
body in the afternoon (thus, both conditions
were exposed to the presentation at the same
time). The teachers involved in this study gave
students the opportunity to make a thank-you
card for the PTA by giving the following
instructions in their classrooms after the
presentation:
The presentation you just saw was given
by our Parent–Teacher Association. We have
about 5 minutes of free time. You can use
this time to write a thank-you card to the
PTA using the paper provided or you can just
hang out. Some people like to say “thanks”
by writing something or drawing a picture.
So if you choose to write a thank-you card,
feel free to either write a letter or draw a
picture and print your first and last name at
the bottom so they know who the card is
coming from. I’ll then pass them on to the
PTA.
Thus, the chance to write thank-you
notes was presented as independent from the
curricula and completely voluntary. After the
activity, teachers collected thank-you cards
and identified the participating students on the
class roster. Teachers then gave the cards to
the school psychologist to mail to the PTA.
Participants only completed this task at posttest because of potential reactivity effects
(Shadish, Cook, & Campbell, 2002). Students
who wrote thank-you cards reported a more
grateful mood (M ⫽ 12.10) at posttest than
students who did not (M ⫽ 11.16), t ⫽ 1.65,
p ⫽ .05, d ⫽ 0.32, indicating construct validity for this behavioral measure.
Procedure
After we received approval from the first
author’s institutional review board, as well as
the school district’s superintendent and administration, parental consent forms were mailed
to students’ homes and children returned them
to their teachers. Children completed assent
forms in their classroom. The participation
rate was 88%, and students who did not participate in the study read at their desks while
the curricula were administered.
Data were collected in the students’
classrooms. Pretest data were collected the
Friday before the week of the intervention
phase. Posttest data were collected the Monday after the intervention phase (in the morning), so the affect ratings covered the intervention week.
To determine treatment integrity, the interns who implemented the curricula answered
questions that targeted the goals and objectives of each lesson. For example, “Did you
complete the ‘Talk About It’ activity?” was
answered yes or no. The rate of successful
completion of the outlined goals and objectives of each lesson for the curricula was
100%, suggesting that lessons were administered as intended.
Results of Study 1
Effectiveness of Treatment
To evaluate whether the intervention
was effective in strengthening students’ benefit appraisals (i.e., grateful thinking), we first
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School Psychology Review, 2014, Volume 43, No. 2
computed means and standard deviations for
each condition at pretest (treatment
M ⫽ 34.98, SD ⫽ 6.42 versus control condition M ⫽ 35.63, SD ⫽ 8.03) and posttest
(treatment M ⫽ 38.53, SD ⫽ 5.14 versus control condition M ⫽ 36.75, SD ⫽ 8.16). We
then conducted an analysis of covariance with
condition as the independent variable, benefit
appraisals at posttest as the dependent variable, and pretest benefit appraisals as the covariate. We used a one-tailed test because our
hypothesis was directional and theory driven.
The treatment students reported significantly
stronger benefit appraisals at posttest compared with the control students, F(1,
98) ⫽ 5.88, p ⬍ .05, 2 ⫽ 0.06. Thus, the
intervention impacted participants’ grateful
thinking.
Next, we analyzed whether the intervention had an effect on students’ levels of gratitude. We computed means and standard deviations for gratitude in each condition at pretest (treatment M ⫽ 11.04, SD ⫽ 3.27 versus
control condition M ⫽ 10.65, SD ⫽ 3.44) and
posttest (treatment M ⫽ 12.03, SD ⫽ 3.02
versus control condition M ⫽ 10.86,
SD ⫽ 3.14). We then conducted an analysis of
covariance with condition as the independent
variable, posttest gratitude as the dependent
variable, and pretest gratitude as the covariate.
We used a one-tailed test because our hypothesis was directional and theory driven. The
treatment students reported significantly more
gratitude at posttest than the control students,
F(1, 95) ⫽ 4.25, p ⬍ .05, 2 ⫽ 0.04.
We then conducted a two-way contingency table analysis to evaluate whether students in the treatment condition wrote more
thank-you cards to be sent to the PTA compared with students in the control condition.
The two variables were condition with two
levels (treatment versus control) and wrote a
thank-you card with two levels (yes versus
no). Condition and the writing of a thank-you
card were found to be significantly related,
Pearson 2(1, N ⫽ 122) ⫽ 4.65, p ⬍ .05,
Cramér’s V ⫽ 0.20. The percentage of students who wrote thank-you cards was 43.5%
(27 of 62) for the treatment condition
and 25.0% (15 of 60) for the control condition.
138
The differences between the conditions
were due to changes within the benefit-appraisal intervention over time. The averaged
benefit appraisals and grateful-mood ratings
remained unchanged over time in the attention-control group.
Brief Discussion
The benefit-appraisal curriculum, carried out daily over a 1-week period, worked as
intended. Students in the treatment condition
reported increases in benefit appraisals and
grateful mood compared with students in the
attention-control condition. Practically speaking, the small effect sizes obtained at posttest
on benefit appraisals and grateful mood (Cohen’s d ⫽ 0.26 and Cohen’s d ⫽ 0.38, respectively) indicate that about 60% of the control
group fell below the treatment group average
in terms of appraising the exchange of benefits
and that about 65% did so in terms of grateful
mood (see Coe, 2002). Furthermore, students
in the treatment condition wrote 80% more
thank-you cards to the PTA than students in
the attention-control condition. Therefore, the
changes observed as a function of the experimental manipulation extend beyond the realm
of self-report and provide evidence that students who had received the training to better
appreciate the prosocial intentions of others
were much more likely to write thank-you
notes.
The results provide evidence that children’s benefit appraisals can be strengthened
and that doing so can increase their gratitude.
The finding that more students in the treatment
condition wrote thank-you cards than students
in the attention-control condition provides external validation of the findings, as well as a
test of theoretical views that gratitude should
lead to reciprocal kind acts (Bartlett & DeSteno, 2006). Importantly, this is the first evidence that any intervention (in children or
adults) focused on increasing gratitude actually leads to behavioral changes. Differences
in thanking behavior at baseline were not accounted for, however, limiting our ability to
infer increases in this behavioral measure.
Nice Thinking
The following questions arose: Would
the same intervention administered weekly
and over a longer period give children more
opportunity to apply the material to their lives
and produce stronger impacts on gratitude and
on subjective well-being? Would this have
lasting effects several months later? In Study 2
we piloted the intervention over a period of 5
weeks and collected data at several follow-up
time points to assess long-term effects in a
different convenience sample, focusing more
on well-being effects.
Study 2: Intervention Using a Weekly
Benefit-Appraisal Curriculum
In the second study we compared the
same treatment and control conditions that
were used in Study 1. However, research suggests that gratitude interventions may be more
effective if participants are given an opportunity to personally engage with the material
(Lyubomirsky, Dickerhoof, Boehm, & Sheldon, 2011). Therefore, our intervention in
Study 2 differed from that in Study 1 in terms
of delivery (weekly versus every day) and
duration (5 weeks long versus 1 week long).
Our intention was to use a less intensive and
more sustained approach to prevent rote repetition and give participants more time to personally apply the material. Otherwise, the
same exact structured lesson plans and procedures were used. Thus, as before, a quasiexperimental design was used in which classrooms were randomly assigned to the treatment or control condition.
As in Study 1, we measured students’
benefit appraisals and gratitude. However, in
Study 2 we also included measures of positive
and negative affect and overall life satisfaction. This time, dependent measures were collected over a span of 5 months rather than a
span of just over a week. This delivery method
and schedule were used to allow a more rigorous test of the intervention’s effectiveness in
producing more sustained changes in individuals’ grateful thinking, grateful mood, and
subjective well-being over a longer period.
Method in Study 2
Participants
The participants were 82 elementary
school students (mean age ⫽ 9.50 years,
SD ⫽ 0.63 years, range ⫽ 8 –11 years) in four
different classes. Cohen (1992) suggests that
with ␣ set at .05 and assuming a medium
effect size, we would need 64 students in each
condition. However, given some unforeseen
circumstances, we were unable to include that
many students. Students were in Grades 4
(46.3%) and 5 (53.7%) within an affluent district (district median household income for a
four-person family ⫽ $129,752; state median
household income for a four-person family ⫽
$83,036). Most were White (80.5%), about
half were boys (54.9%), and 11.0% reported
receiving free lunch. Per the New York State
Report Card website for the year we collected
data, 95% of fourth-grade students and 88% of
fifth-grade students (the same grades as those
who participated in our study) demonstrated
an understanding or a thorough understanding
of the content for the English language arts
state examination that is expected for the subject and grade level (https://reportcards.nysed.gov/). These students were from a different
school district than those in Study 1.
Measures
Benefit-appraisal vignettes.
The
nine-item benefit-appraisal composite showed
good reliability (␣ ranged from 0.80 – 0.91).
Regarding construct validity, CFAs at each
time point again yielded perfect fits because
the models tested were all saturated. Factor
loadings were large and significant at each
time point. Specifically, standardized factor
loadings ranged from 0.60 – 0.70 at Time 1,
from 0.60 – 0.90 at Time 2, from 0.60 – 0.85 at
Time 3, from 0.60 – 0.88 at Time 4, and
from 0.75– 0.94 at Time 5. The benefit-appraisal composite was positively correlated
with mean scores from the vignette gratitude
items, r ⫽ 0.53 to r ⫽ 0.76 across the five time
points, p ⬍ .001.
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School Psychology Review, 2014, Volume 43, No. 2
Grateful mood. The three emotion
items of the GAC (McCullough et al., 2002)
showed good internal consistency and reliability (␣ ranged from 0.81– 0.93).
Positive and Negative Affect Scale
for Children. The Positive and Negative
Affect Scale for Children (PANAS-C) (Laurent et al., 1999) was used to assess positive
affect and negative affect. It consists of 15
positive emotions (e.g., happy, cheerful)
and 15 negative emotions (e.g., sad, frightened) rated on scales ranging from 1 (very
slightly or not at all) to 5 (extremely). Internal
consistency is strong for both the positive affect scale (0.90 for the scale development
sample and 0.89 for the replication sample)
and negative affect scale (0.94 for the scale
development sample and 0.92 for the replication sample; Laurent et al., 1999). Both scales
also have good convergent and discriminant
validity, with negative affect being positively
correlated with childhood measures of depression and anxiety (r ⫽ 0.60 and r ⫽ 0.68,
respectively) and positive affect being inversely correlated with these measures (r ⫽
– 0.42 and r ⫽ – 0.30, respectively; Laurent et
al., 1999). Participants were asked to rate the
amount they experienced each feeling “during
the past few weeks.” In this sample, ␣ ranged
from 0.84 – 0.90 for positive affect and negative affect.
Brief Multidimensional Students’
Life Satisfaction Scale. The Brief Multidimensional Students’ Life Satisfaction Scale
(BMSLSS) (Seligson, Huebner, & Valois,
2003) is a five-item measure using a response
scale ranging from 1 (terrible) to 7 (delighted)
that assesses overall life satisfaction summed
across multiple domains (family, friendships,
school, self, and living environment). The
scale is designed to assess general life satisfaction in children and youth (aged 8 –18
years). Internal consistency has been reported
to be acceptable with middle school students
(␣ ⫽ 0.75), and the scale has demonstrated a
unidimensional factor structure that correlates
significantly with the Students’ Life Satisfaction Scale (r ⫽ 0.70) and other measures of
140
well-being (Seligson, Huebner, & Valois,
2005). A sample item from the BMSLSS is as
follows: “I would describe my satisfaction
with my friends as ____________.” The five
items were combined into a life satisfaction
score. In this sample, ␣ ranged from
0.65– 0.77.
Curricula Administration
The same benefit-appraisal and attention-control curricula used in Study 1 were
administered to the participants in Study 2,
except that they received the curricula weekly
for 5 weeks. K.H. trained the two school psychology interns (different graduate students
from Study 1), from the school at which the
study took place, in the two curricula the same
way she did for the interns in Study 1. During
the intervention phase, K.H. met with the interns weekly as needed. The interns and teachers were kept blind to the study’s purpose and
hypotheses and told that classrooms would be
assigned to one of two curricula: emotional
(i.e., benefit appraisal) or social (i.e., attention
control); any mention of gratitude was absent
from conversations. As in Study 1, we used
self-report checklists to ensure that interns administered each condition as intended.
Four classrooms of students participated. Slightly more students were assigned to
the benefit-appraisal curriculum (n ⫽ 44) than
the attention-control curriculum (n ⫽ 38).
There were almost identical numbers of students per grade in each condition (fourth
grade: treatment condition, n ⫽ 21; attentioncontrol condition, n ⫽ 17; fifth grade: treatment condition, n ⫽ 23; attention-control condition, n ⫽ 21). One intern was assigned to the
fifth grade class in the benefit-appraisal condition and the fourth grade class in the attention-control condition; the other intern was
assigned to the fifth grade class in the attention-control condition and the fourth grade
class in the benefit-appraisal condition. A coin
toss was used to decide which intern went with
which classroom. Instruction time for both the
benefit-appraisal and attention-control curricula was 30 minutes once a week for a total
of 5 weeks. The same raffle procedure used in
Nice Thinking
Study 1 was used to encourage participation
and homework completion.
Procedure
As in Study 1, permission was received
from the institutional review board and school
district, and procedures for consent and assent
were identical. The participation rate was
84%. The fifth author (K.H.) recruited all
fourth and fifth grade teachers who were interested in participating. Students who did not
participate in the research read at their desks
while the curricula were being administered.
Data were collected in students’ classrooms.
Baseline data (T1) were collected right before
the first lesson plan was taught. Posttest data
(T2) were collected right after the fifth, and
final, lesson plan was taught, at 5 weeks. Additional follow-up data were collected at 7
weeks (T3), 12 weeks (T4), and 20 weeks
(T5).
As in Study 1, the two interns who implemented the curricula completed a checklist
after each lesson. The results indicated that
100% of the outlined goals and objectives of
each lesson were implemented as intended.
Analytic Strategy
We used one-tailed tests because all hypotheses were directional and theory driven.
Because the data were nested within individuals over time, we used hierarchical linear
modeling (HLM; cf. Raudenbush & Bryk,
2002) to examine the treatment effects longitudinally. Two levels of analysis were specified: (a) within person (Level 1), with the time
variable as the only predictor, and (b) between
persons (Level 2), with the treatment condition as the only predictor. The Level 1 model
examined within-person changes over time for
repeated measures, whereas the Level 2 model
examined between-person differences in the
change trajectories.
The HLMs were performed in two
stages. The first stage involved a series of
within-person models to determine the optimal
description of the overall trajectories characterizing the repeated measures for the entire
sample. These “unconditional” models had
time as the only predictor. A null (i.e., intercept-only) model was first fitted to the data,
followed by the addition of a linear time term
and then a quadratic time term, to explore
whether the added terms would improve
model fit. We also explored whether allowing
the intercept, linear, and quadratic time terms
to vary across individuals would boost model
fit. The time variable was centered at T1
(baseline) and specified in weeks so that T2
was 5 weeks, T3 was 7 weeks, T4 was 12
weeks, and T5 was 20 weeks. This first stage
produced optimal unconditional models for
the entire sample in which the mean intercept
indicated the average standing just before the
intervention and the mean slope indicated average rates of change. Significant variances in
the intercepts and slopes implied betweenperson variation in those parameters that may
be explained by Level 2 predictors.
In the second stage of analysis, treatment condition was incorporated to explain
these variances. These “conditional” models
enabled examination of any intervention effects. The intervention effect is the difference
between the treatment condition (coded as 1)
and the control condition (coded as 0). A significant treatment effect on the intercept indicated that there were significant group mean
differences on the dependent variable before
the start of the intervention (because classes
and not individuals were randomly assigned to
conditions, it was necessary to examine group
differences at baseline). A significant treatment effect on the slopes, or cross-level interactions between time and treatment, indicated
that the two groups had different rates of
change on the dependent variable.
Results of Study 2
Descriptive statistics for the variables
across all five time points are displayed separately for the treatment and control conditions
in Table 1. We expected that compared with
the control condition, the treatment condition
would show longitudinal increases in individuals’ benefit appraisals (i.e., grateful thinking),
grateful mood, and subjective well-being (i.e.,
greater positive affect and life satisfaction and
141
School Psychology Review, 2014, Volume 43, No. 2
Table 1
Means and Standard Deviations of
Dependent Variables Across
Observations for Intervention and
Control Conditions in Study 2
Outcome
Grateful thinking
T1
T2
T3
T4
T5
Gratitude
T1
T2
T3
T4
T5
Positive affect
T1
T2
T3
T4
T5
Negative affect
T1
T2
T3
T4
T5
Life satisfaction
T1
T2
T3
T4
T5
AttentionControl
Condition
BenefitAppraisal
Intervention
M (SD)
M (SD)
38.86 (5.75)
40.32 (4.57)
40.76 (4.92)
40.76 (4.66)
39.63 (5.73)
38.07 (6.12)
42.37 (2.56)
42.79 (3.09)
42.44 (3.29)
42.67 (2.80)
12.18 (3.00)
12.11 (3.32)
12.00 (3.18)
12.27 (3.34)
11.82 (3.52)
12.30 (2.61)
12.82 (2.48)
12.95 (2.86)
13.16 (2.70)
13.23 (2.49)
3.64 (0.77)
3.64 (0.73)
3.63 (0.85)
3.70 (0.86)
3.55 (0.87)
3.56 (0.72)
3.89 (0.57)
3.69 (0.73)
3.96 (0.69)
3.96 (0.65)
1.87 (0.68)
1.73 (0.60)
1.60 (0.53)
1.71 (0.60)
1.60 (0.65)
1.68 (0.50)
1.48 (0.44)
1.45 (0.44)
1.57 (0.56)
1.51 (0.48)
28.34 (4.82)
29.34 (3.79)
30.11 (4.10)
29.59 (4.80)
30.35 (4.30)
30.73 (3.62)
31.61 (3.62)
31.84 (4.21)
31.64 (4.17)
31.47 (3.95)
Note. T1 ⫽ baseline; T2 ⫽ immediately posttest; T3 ⫽
7-week follow-up; T4 ⫽ 12-week follow-up; T5 ⫽ 20week follow-up. Scores for benefit appraisals could range
from 9 to 45. Scores for gratitude could range from 3
to 15. Scores for positive affect and negative affect could
range from 1 to 5 because the mean was calculated due to
some missing data. Scores for life satisfaction could range
from 7 to 35.
142
lower negative affect). Thus, our first step was
to determine the optimal unconditional models
for these variables. Table 2 shows the mean
intercepts and mean linear slopes, which index
the starting point and weekly change on each
variable for the whole sample. A quadratic
time term added little to the within-person
model, making a linear model the optimal
Level 1 trajectory. The intercepts and linear
slopes of each variable also had significant
variances, indicating that Level 2 differences
could account for variability in both parameters. Having identified the optimal within-person trajectory and found that there was variability because of between-person factors, we
proceeded to the conditional model analyses to
examine whether the intervention had any effects on our dependent variables.
Effectiveness of Intervention
The unconditional model with benefit
appraisals showed a significant mean intercept
for the whole sample, at ␥00 ⫽ 39.798, p ⬍
.001, and a significant mean linear slope of ␥10
⫽ 0.114, p ⬍ .001, for each week. This means
that the benefit-appraisal scores increased linearly over time for the entire sample. To evaluate whether students in the intervention condition exhibited more linear growth in benefit
appraisals (i.e., their grateful thinking) than
students in the control condition, we examined
the conditional HLM with benefit appraisals,
which included a between-person covariate for
experimental condition. Figure 2 shows that
the two groups started out with similar levels
of benefit appraisals but that only the intervention group showed linear increases over the
course of 20 weeks. Each week, students in the
intervention condition strengthened their benefit appraisals by 0.196 units whereas those in
the control condition stayed relatively flat (see
Table 3). The intervention had no significant
effect on the intercept, t (df ⫽ 80) ⫽ – 0.05, ns,
but had a significant effect on linear slope, t
(df ⫽ 80) ⫽ 3.09, p ⫽ .001, effect size
r ⫽ 0.33. This linear slope difference led to
mean differences in benefit appraisals between
the control and intervention groups at 12 weeks,
t (df ⫽ 80) ⫽ 2.39, p ⫽ .01, d ⫽ 0.53, and
Nice Thinking
Table 2
Hierarchical Linear Model Results Based on Unconditional Models in
Study 2
Intercept
Dependent Variable
Grateful thinking
Gratitude
Positive affect
Negative affect
Life satisfaction
␥00
39.798**
12.368**
3.656**
1.679**
30.123**
Linear Slope
0
14.577**
5.621**
0.357**
0.157**
13.771**
␥10
0.114**
0.014
0.004
–0.007*
0.046*
1
0.032**
0.011**
0.001**
0.013*
0.020**
Note. ␥00 ⫽ mean intercept; ␥10 ⫽ mean linear slope; 0 ⫽ variance of intercept across individuals; 1 ⫽ variance of
linear slope across individuals.
*p ⬍ .05. **p ⬍ .001
at 20 weeks, t (df ⫽ 80) ⫽ 3.31, p ⫽ .001,
d ⫽ 0.74.
Because increases in benefit appraisal
were found in the intervention condition, indicating an increase in grateful thinking, we
proceeded to analyze whether the intervention
also had effects on students’ gratitude and
subjective well-being (i.e., positive affect,
negative affect, and life satisfaction).
Gratitude
The unconditional model with gratitude
showed a significant mean intercept, at ␥00
⫽ 12.378, p ⬍ .001, and no mean linear slope,
␥10 ⫽ 0.14, ns, for the whole sample. The
conditional model showed no significant intervention effect on the intercept, t (df ⫽ 80) ⫽
– 0.05, ns, but did show a significant intervention effect on linear slope, t (df ⫽ 80) ⫽ 1.68,
p ⫽ .05, effect size r ⫽ 0.18. With each week,
students in the intervention condition
gained 0.072 units of gratitude whereas the
control group stayed relatively static (see Table 3). This general pattern was sustained and
led to significant differences in mean levels of
gratitude at 12 weeks, t (df ⫽ 80) ⫽ 1.82, p ⫽
.04, d ⫽ 0.41, and at 20 weeks, t (df ⫽
80) ⫽ 2.14, p ⫽ .02, d ⫽ 0.48 (see Figure 2).
Positive and Negative Emotion
The unconditional model with positive
affect as the dependent variable showed a sig-
nificant mean intercept, at ␥00 ⫽ 3.656, p ⬍
.001, and no mean linear slope, ␥10 ⫽ 0.004,
ns, for the whole sample. Results from the
conditional analyses showed no intervention
effect on the intercept, t (df ⫽ 80) ⫽ – 0.09, ns,
but did show a significant intervention effect
on linear slope, t (df ⫽ 80) ⫽ 2.72, p ⫽ .004,
effect size r ⫽ 0.29. Students in the intervention condition gained 0.019 units of positive
affect each week, whereas the control group
stayed relatively flat (see Table 3). This pattern led to significant differences in mean levels of positive affect at 12 weeks, t (df ⫽
80) ⫽ 1.77, p ⫽ .04, d ⫽ 0.40, and at 20
weeks, t (df ⫽ 80) ⫽ 2.46, p ⫽ .008, d ⫽ 0.55
(see Figure 2).
In terms of negative affect, the unconditional model yielded a significant mean intercept, at ␥00 ⫽ 1.679, p ⬍ .001, and a significant mean linear slope, ␥10 ⫽ – 0.007, p ⬍ .05,
for the whole sample. This means that negative affect decreased linearly for the entire
sample. Results from the conditional analyses
showed an intervention effect on the intercept,
t (df ⫽ 80) ⫽ –2.13, p ⫽ .04, but not on the
linear slope, t (df ⫽ 80) ⫽ 1.01, ns.
Life Satisfaction
The unconditional model showed a significant mean intercept, at ␥00 ⫽ 30.123, p ⬍
.001, and a significant mean linear slope, ␥10
⫽ 0.046, p ⬍ .05, for the whole sample,
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School Psychology Review, 2014, Volume 43, No. 2
Figure 2. Growth curves of benefit appraisals (grateful thinking), gratitude,
and positive emotion by experimental condition for Study 2. Treatment slopes
are statistically significant at p ⴝ .001 for benefit appraisals (i.e., grateful
thinking), p ⴝ .02 for gratitude, and p ⴝ .008 for positive affect. Scores for
grateful thinking could range from 9 to 45. Scores for gratitude could range
from 3 to 15. Scores for positive affect could range from 1 to 5 because the
mean was calculated owing to some missing data.
144
Nice Thinking
Table 3
Hierarchical Linear Model Results Based on Conditional Models in Study 2
Dependent Variable
Grateful thinking
Intercept
Linear slope
Gratitude
Intercept
Linear slope
Positive affect
Intercept
Linear slope
Negative affect
Intercept
Linear slope
Life satisfaction
Intercept
Linear slope
Attention-Control Condition
Intervention Effect
39.820 (0.753)***
0.021 (0.038)
–0.049 (0.991)
0.175 (0.057)**
12.185 (0.479)***
–0.016 (0.029)
0.339 (0.599)
0.0563 (0.034)*
3.663 (0.117)***
–0.004 (0.007)
–0.014 (0.149)
0.023 (0.008)**
1.798 (0.085)**
–0.011 (0.005)
–0.223 (0.104)*
0.006 (0.006)
28.827 (0.667)***
0.072 (0.037)
2.416 (0.845)**
–0.049 (0.043)
Note. The numbers in parentheses are standard errors. Intervention effect is the difference between the gratitude
curriculum (coded as 1) and the control condition (coded as 0).
*p ⬍ .05. **p ⬍ .01. ***p ⬍ .001.
indicating that life satisfaction increased linearly for everyone during the 20 weeks. Conditional analyses showed an intervention effect on the intercept, t (df ⫽ 80) ⫽ 2.86, p ⫽
.006, but not on the linear slope, t (df ⫽ 80) ⫽
–1.13, ns.
Brief Discussion
The treatment condition was effective in
altering appraisals of perceived intention, cost,
and value of interpersonal benefits. Students
who were in this condition exhibited growth in
benefit appraisals (i.e., grateful thinking) over
time, whereas students in the attention-control
condition did not. The peak difference in magnitude between the two groups was seen at T5
(5 months after the start of the intervention),
suggesting somewhat lasting effects of the intervention. By use of the definition of Cohen
(1992), this peak in benefit appraisals is close
to showing a large effect.
The main goal of this study was to induce gratitude by helping to educate children
about benefit appraisals. The results provided
support for this notion. Students in the treat-
ment condition exhibited growth in gratitude
over time, whereas students in the control condition remained static. Although the effect size
was small, the peak difference in magnitude
between the two groups again emerged by the
final time point, which amounted to a medium-sized effect.
With respect to the intervention’s impact on subjective well-being, we found a similar pattern for positive affect. That is, students
in the treatment condition exhibited growth in
positive mood relative to the students in the
control condition, whose positive mood remained stable. This also resulted in a mediumsized difference between the two groups by
the final time point. Such evidence provides
further support for the use of benefit-appraisal
education as a viable gratitude intervention,
showing that our intervention produced results
analogous to those commonly obtained
through more established gratitude intervention techniques. However, the intervention did
not influence the other two measures of subjective well-being (i.e., negative affect and life
satisfaction) in the study.
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School Psychology Review, 2014, Volume 43, No. 2
General Discussion
Our research was the first to test a gratitude intervention with children aged as young
as 8 years (cf. Froh et al., 2009). Our results
converge with previous research confirming
the empirical benefits of gratitude interventions with older youth as well as with adults.
We predicted that 8- to 11-year-old children
participating in a curriculum that trained their
schemas for receiving help or benefits from
other persons would engage in more grateful
cognitive processing, as compared with a control condition, and that—as a result—they
would experience more gratitude and subjective well-being. This pattern was mostly confirmed across the two studies reported in this
article. This preliminary study with convenience samples supports the notion that elementary school children can be taught to think
more gratefully via a brief cognitive intervention delivered in classrooms. Furthermore, increases in gratitude were linked to increases in
thanking behavior (in Study 1) and general
positive affect up to 20 weeks later (in Study
2). The observation that increases in one specific positive mood state (i.e., gratitude) may
have facilitated behavioral changes and increases in other positive emotions (e.g., happiness) is in line with theories suggesting that
gratitude should lead to reciprocal kind acts
(Bartlett & DeSteno, 2006) and increases in
well-being (Emmons & McCullough, 2003).
Our research makes a notable contribution to the developing science of gratitude
interventions. The benefit-appraisal curriculum introduced in this report and tested in
these two studies offers an additional empirically validated intervention for enhancing
gratitude. Wood et al. (2010) classified gratitude interventions into three categories: gratitude journals, grateful writing/contemplations,
and behavioral expressions of gratitude. Although the journaling approach has been used
most often with adults, it is not without limitations (Wood et al., 2010). One of these may
be in its use with younger children, particularly in experimental research in which uniformity of the experimental manipulation within
a condition is paramount. The journaling ap146
proach allows for wider variability in what
participants focus on (e.g., the number of
things they are grateful for, the degree of elaboration and personalization involved). The
curriculum introduced in this article is much
more standardized. Benefit-appraisal education offers a uniform, structured lesson plan
that allows for less within-group variability.
The benefit-appraisal curriculum provides a
relatively easy-to-implement tool that complements other positive psychology exercises
available for use by school psychologists.
Our main goal was to examine whether
teaching benefit appraisals could produce gratitude in children during the age range when
gratitude is thought to mature in development.
The results were promising in this respect. In
fact, because the moral self develops through
more advanced social interactions during middle childhood (Eisenberg, Spinrad, & Sadovsky, 2006), an intervention that scaffolds
appraisals of helpful exchanges may be an
optimal way to promote gratitude during this
period. Developmental research studying processes involved in such an intervention can
help tailor benefit-appraisal education to various age groups. For instance, it would be
fruitful to understand why the appraisals of
value, cost, and intention each boosts gratitude
in different age groups. Such knowledge will
also help to better understand trait gratitude
during this formative period in development.
A methodologic strength of our study is
that we were able to closely monitor the interventions as they unfolded. We took care to
ensure that all procedures, both within and
across conditions and grade levels, were
strictly followed. Compared with other gratitude interventions, such close monitoring represents an improvement. However, we acknowledge that use of self-report checklists to
assess treatment integrity was a limitation because self-presentation concerns toward the
experimenter (i.e., contact author) may have
influenced administrators’ completion of the
checklists. It would have been ideal to observe
and rate some of the curriculum administration
sessions, but logistics prevented this from
happening.
Nice Thinking
Another drawback is that we did not
randomly assign students to conditions, thus
limiting our ability to draw strong causal inferences. Random assignment of individuals
was not possible at the included schools given
the burden true random assignment would
have posed. However, random assignment of
individuals would provide a stronger test of
this intervention because it would eliminate
confounds due to individual differences between students or classroom teachers.
Another limitation is that students from
the two different conditions could have interacted with each other, learning who received
what curriculum. Having learned that they did
not receive the benefit-appraisal curriculum,
students receiving the attention-control curriculum may have then seen their treatment as
not credible, having no impact on them. This
negative view of the control condition could
potentially help explain the between-group
differences. Future researchers should consider assessing this treatment expectation at
pretest to control for it in later analyses.
Furthermore, our participant pool was
restricted in socioeconomic and demographic
diversity. Data were obtained from students in
an affluent school district, limiting the generalizability of our findings. Our samples comprised students living in communities and
schools that are different from many others.
The distributions of cognitive and academic
skills are higher and narrower and the students
have fewer unmet social or emotional needs,
as compared with average school districts.
However, youth who are lower in positive
emotions benefit more from gratitude interventions than students who are higher in positive emotions (Froh et al., 2009). Thus, it may
be that students with greater academic, emotional, or social needs would benefit more
from our benefit-appraisal curriculum. Therefore, future research should examine the effects of gratitude interventions in a broader
range of family income levels and across various ethnic groups, especially among disadvantaged populations. Such studies may yield
new and different effects.
Conclusion
At a broader level, there are implications
of this research for school settings and positive
youth development. Many secondary students
report dissatisfaction with their school experience (Huebner et al., 2005). Experiencing and
expressing gratitude comprise a simple way to
counter negative appraisals of school and increase school bonding and social adjustment
(Froh et al., 2008). Given such findings, future
research should examine whether gratitude
promotion also affects helping, cooperation,
and trust between students. Evidence suggests
that gratitude boosts social cohesion, relational and job satisfaction, and organizational
functioning as well (Emmons, 2004). So, the
improved behaviors that could ensue from
gratitude promotion in schools would likely
spread to teachers and staff, encouraging them
to work harder for students and helping to
prevent burnout. Therefore, teaching students
to develop an attitude of gratitude may foster
stronger bonds to schools and communities,
helping both students and schools to thrive
(Froh & Bono, 2011).
Given the ease of inducing gratitude, its
potential for making school tasks and exercises more creative and interesting, and its
benefits to individuals and their environments,
gratitude interventions for youth should be
seriously considered by those interested in fostering positive youth development. Gratitude
may strengthen supportive relationships and
increase prosocial behavior in adolescents
(Froh, Yurkewicz, & Kashdan, 2009), and these
resources may be especially useful for students
with special needs, physical disabilities, or social
adjustment difficulties. Teaching students to
respond gratefully to friends who protect them
from a bully, encourage them to persist on a task,
or offer help on homework can strengthen
friendships, increasing students’ satisfaction
with school and their chances of succeeding.
Establishing social relationships and a
sense of identity are central challenges as children enter adolescence. Both are complicated
in contemporary culture, where youths’ social
worlds are characterized by unprecedented
amounts of time spent with mass media and
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School Psychology Review, 2014, Volume 43, No. 2
exposure to commercial forces that push materialistic pursuits and risky behaviors, which
can undermine healthy social development.
Gratitude can counteract such forces and help
youth thrive (Froh, Emmons, et al., 2011).
Acknowledging kind acts from others
strengthens relationships, helps secure new relationships, and improves health and well-being. Education that facilitates cognitive appraisals that produce gratitude should be encouraged as early in life as possible so that
young persons have a head start toward becoming mature receivers and providers of benevolent actions. Grateful thinking, then, may
help improve the supportiveness of school climates, as well as bringing the added benefit of
boosting students’ interest in getting the most
out of school.
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Appendix
Comparison Between Benefit-Appraisal and Attention-Control Lesson Plans
Benefit-Appraisal Lesson Plans
Session 1
Set it up: The facilitator introduces self and
explains what will take place during the
meetings.
Talk about it: The facilitator writes down the
word thankful and has the group discuss the
word and what it means.
Jot it down: The facilitator hands out journals,
and the students are instructed that these will
be their gratitude journals. The students then
jot down three things that they are most
thankful for.
Watch it: The facilitator will show the video
clip “Gratitude Is,” which displays various
terms and feelings associated with gratitude.
Sum it up: The facilitator will ask the students
to sum up what they learned today and
instruct them to think of other things that
they feel grateful for to share during their
next meeting. Raffle tickets are then handed
out.
Attention-Control Lesson Plans
Set it up: The facilitator introduces self and
explains what will take place during the
meetings.
Talk about it: The facilitator writes down the
word activities and has the group discuss the
word and what it means.
Jot it down: The facilitator hands out journals,
and the students are instructed that these will be
their daily events journals. The students then jot
down three things that they do throughout the
day.
Watch it: The facilitator will show the video
clip “Active Kids,” which displays various
pictures of children participating in different
activities.
Sum it up: The facilitator will ask the students
to sum up what they learned today and instruct
them to think of something new that they did
this week for their next meeting. Raffle tickets
are then handed out.
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Appendix Continued
Benefit-Appraisal Lesson Plans
Session 2
Intentions
Set it up: The facilitator will review the previous
session and the assignment that was to be
completed for this session.
Talk about it: The facilitator explains that today
they will talk more about grateful feelings,
and explains what the word intentional
means.
Think about it: The students take out their
gratitude journals and, working in teams,
answer questions about two passages that the
facilitator reads to them.
Jot it down: In their journals, the students will
write about a time that someone went out of
their way to help them.
Sum it up: The facilitator sums up the session and
explains that, for next week, the students are to
look out for moments that they feel thankful.
Session 3
Cost
Set it up: The facilitator reviews the previous
session and goes over the assignment from the
last session.
Talk about it: The students are asked to describe
the word cost and are taught the different
meanings of the word and how it could mean
a time when someone gave up something for
someone else.
Read about it: The facilitator reads the book The
Giving Tree (Silverstein, 1964) and then
discusses the book with the students.
Create it: The students are given a picture of a
leaf and are asked to write down one thing
they would do to show the tree that they
were grateful for what she did for them.
Jot it down: The students write down a time that
someone went out of their way to help them.
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Attention-Control Lesson Plans
Others’ Activities
Set it up: The facilitator will review the
previous session and the assignment that was to
be completed for this session.
Talk about it: The facilitator explains that today
they will talk more about the different
activities we do.
Think about it: The students take out their daily
events journal, pair up, and interview each
other to find out more about what different
things their partner might do in his or her
day.
Jot it down: In their journals, the students will
think of three activities that they learned
about the person they interviewed.
Sum it up: The facilitator sums up the session
and explains that, for next week, the students
are to look out for new activities that they do.
Seasonal Activities
Set it up: The facilitator reviews the previous
session and goes over the assignment from the
last session.
Talk about it: The students are asked to describe
the different things they might do in the
different seasons of the year.
Read about it: The facilitator reads four poems
about different activities that occur
throughout the seasons.
Create it: The students are given a graphic
organizer of the four different seasons and are
asked to list or draw different activities that
they do in each season.
Jot it down: The students write three things that
they typically do during one season of the year.
Nice Thinking
Appendix continued
Benefit-Appraisal Lesson Plans
Sum it up: The facilitator sums up the session
and explains the assignment for next week,
which is to write down different times
someone helped them and what they did.
Session 4
Benefit
Set it up: The facilitator reviews the previous
session and goes over the assignment from
the last session.
Talk about it: The facilitator explains what
benefit means and asks for examples of
benefit as it relates to gratitude.
Create it: The students open their journals and
write some of the things that others have
done to help better them in some way.
Jot it down: Also in their journals, the students
write about a time that someone went out
of their way to help them.
Sum it up: The facilitator sums up what they
discussed in the meeting and assigns the
students to think of the times that someone
helped them during the week and write
about its benefits.
Session 5
Set it up: The facilitator reviews the previous
session and goes over last week’s assignment.
Talk about it: The facilitator continues to review
by writing down three components (intention,
cost, and benefit) on the board with a large
equal sign and the word “grateful’ next to
it.
Act it out: The facilitator assists the students
with role-play situations of feeling grateful.
Jot it down: In their journals, the students write
about a time someone went out of their
way to help them and explains the
intention, cost, and benefit.
Watch it: The facilitator shows the video clip
“The Gratitude Dance.”
Sum it up: The facilitator sums up everything
they talked about.
Attention-Control Lesson Plans
Sum it up: The facilitator sums up the session
and explains the assignment for next week,
which is to write down new activities they
participated in and what happened.
Daily Routine Activities
Set it up: The facilitator reviews the previous
session and goes over the assignment from the
last session.
Talk about it: The facilitator explains what a
routine is and asks for examples of daily
routine activities.
Create it: In their journals, the students write
some of the things that they do every day in
the chart.
Jot it down: Also in their journals, the students
write three daily routine activities.
Sum it up: The facilitator sums up what they
discussed in the meeting and assigns the
students to think about the new activities they
participated in and write about what
happened.
Set it up: The facilitator reviews the previous
session and goes over last week’s assignment.
Act it out: The facilitator assists the students in
a game of charades to act out different
activities we might do.
Jot it down: In their journals, the students list as
many activities as they can think of.
Watch it: The facilitator shows a funny video
clip about daily activities.
Sum it up: The facilitator sums up everything
they talked about.
Note. Differences between lesson plans are indicated by boldface.
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School Psychology Review, 2014, Volume 43, No. 2
Date Received: May 31, 2011
Date Accepted: October 3, 2013
Associate Editor: Shannon Suldo 䡲
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, 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, 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, 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, PsyD, received her PsyD in school psychology from Hofstra
University. She practices school psychology and psychotherapy in New York.
Cheray Harris, MS, is currently a doctoral candidate in the School-Community Psychology program at Hofstra University. Her research interests include how to apply schoolbased positive psychology interventions to at-risk youth.
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 wellbeing in youth.
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.
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