Gratitude was examined among 154 students to identify benefits from its experience and expression.
Students completed measures of subjective well-being, social support, prosocial behavior, and physical
symptoms. Positive associations were found between gratitude and positive affect, global and domain
specific life satisfaction, optimism, social support, and prosocial behavior; most relations remained even
after controlling for positive affect. Gratitude demonstrated a negative relation with physical symptoms,
but not with negative affect. Relational fulfillment mediated the relation between gratitude and physical
symptoms. Gratitude demonstrated strong relations with the following positive affects: proud, hopeful,
inspired, forgiving, and excited. The relation between gratitude and family support was moderated by
gender, indicating that boys, compared with girls, appear to derive more social benefits from gratitude.
Strengths, limitations, and implications are discussed.
2008 The Association for Professionals in Services for Adolescents. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights
reserved.