An Important Measurement Issue
Little research has addressed the development of gratitude in
children and adolescents. Psychoanalytic theorists, however, offer
one portrait of the development of gratitude in children. For
example, Klein (1957) asserted that gratitude first emerges in the
earliest stages of infancy, but only if envy does not overpower its
development. Envy, Klein maintained, originated during the development
of the mother– child bond if the mother deprived the
child of either physical nourishment via breast milk or emotional
nourishment via love and care. The ultimate consequence for a
child who develops envy in this way is being deprived of the