3-053 - Developing Gratitude in Children and Adolescents, 2: The Impact of Parents and Teachers

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

In this symposium, one of two related symposia on gratitude, our focus is on the ways in which parents and teachers may develop gratitude in youth (the other symposium features papers on gratitude developing in youth).

Presentation 1 deals with parent–child conversations about gratitude-related behaviors, such conversations being one possible mechanism by which youth become grateful individuals. The presentation features qualitative data from approximately 100 North American dyads (parents and their 6- to 9-year-old children) who participated in reminiscing about one event in which the child appropriately expressed gratitude and another in which gratitude was not exhibited although appropriate.

Presentation 2 also draws on data from almost 100 North American mother–child conversations, although also incorporating a more quantitative method, assessing the mothers’ own degree of gratitude and their propensity to encourage their children to express gratitude, as well as the children’s reports of their own likelihood to feel grateful.

Presentation 3 uses interview and questionnaire data derived from 45 North American 7- to 14-year-olds and their mothers, examining the links between mothers’ and children’s levels of gratitude, and their relation with the children’s likelihood of feeling that nice things happen to them.

Presentation 4 serves as a reminder that it is not only parents who try to encourage gratitude, examining how teachers may foster gratitude in their pupils, using questionnaire and focus-group data from a total of 59 Australian teachers. Those teachers who practiced gratitude reported positive impacts on their students, themselves, their colleagues, and their community.

Sub Unit

• Moral Development

Chairs

• Jonathan Tudge, UNCG

• Lia B. L. Freitas, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil

Individual Presentations

• Parental Socialization of Child Gratitude and Links to Child Outcomes - Presenting Author: Boglarka K Vizy, West Virginia University; Amy Gentzler, West Virginia University; Karena Moran, West Virginia University

• Parent Socialization of Children’s Gratitude Through Conversations - Presenting Author: Hillary Langley, Sam Houston State University, Department of Psychology; Jennifer Coffman, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Andrea Hussong, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill

• Relations Between Parent and Child Gratitude - Presenting Author: Lia O'Brien, UNCG; Uzama S Price, UNC-Greensboro; Elisa Mercon-Vargas, University of North Carolina at Greensboro; Yue Liang, The University of North Carolina at Greensboro; Sara Etz Mendonca, The University of North Carolina at Greensboro; Imari R McCoy, UNC-Greensboro; Jonathan Tudge, UNCG

• How Teachers’ Gratitude can Foster Students’ Gratitude to Achieve Greater Engagement in Learning - Presenting Author: Kerry Howells, The University of Tasmania, Australia