GRATITUDE

What is gratitude?
a. “A sense of thankfulness and joy in response to receiving a gift, whether the gift be a tangible benefit from a specific other or a moment of peaceful bliss evoked by natural beauty” (Emmons, 2004, p. 554)
b. Trait gratitude: “life orientation toward noticing and appreciating the positive in life”(Wood, Froh, & Geraghty, 2010, p. 891)

What do we do?
1. Education: teach students what it is, how to do it, why it matters.
2. Activities:
     a. Gratitude Journals-write what grateful for at start of every day in summer program, at start of weekly meetings
     b. Teach them how to write thank you notes, when it is appropriate to write thank you notes
     c. Gratitude before meals, for opportunities (notes to people, saying thank you, etc.)
3. Modeling: Teachers/staff model gratitude often to students

Research on Gratitude:

1. Mental Health:
• The left prefrontal cortex lights up when positive emotions, right prefrontal cortex lights up when negative emotions, can’t happen at the same time (Lewis, 2005)
• Impacts anxiety and depression: We can preclude the possibility of going into a state of anxiety or depression by engaging in a daily gratitude practice, an experience that automatically adds ‘positive energetic return’ to our brain’s ongoing tally of energetic losses and gains. (Peggy La Cerrera)
• Gratitude can reduce the frequency and duration of episodes of depression (Wood, 2008, Journal of Research in Personality)
• People who practice gratitude are more present, and get more joy from moments (Robert Emmons, 2003)
• Grateful people are happier, have more hope (Overwalle, Mervielde, & DeSchuyter, 1995)
• Adolescents who express gratitude experience positive affect, satisfaction with self, school, family, and friends (Froh et al, 2009b)
• Resilient people bounce back from negative life events because they experience positive emotions, like gratitude, in response to stressful situations (Tugade & Fredrickson, 2005)

2. Physical Health:
• Immune system: The IgA antibody, which serves as the first line of defense against pathogens, increases in the body. (Source)
• Improved hormonal balance: Lower levels of stress hormones in their blood; favorable changes in the body's biochemistry include improved hormonal balance and an increase in production of DHEA, the "anti-aging hormone." (McCraty, Barrios-Choplin, Rozman, Atkinson, and Watkins, 1998)
• Consciously experiencing appreciation increases parasympathetic activity, a change thought to be beneficial in controlling stress and hypertension (Rollin McCraty)

3. Academic Performance:
• For late adolescents, gratitude was positively related with social integration, life satisfaction, and academic achievement, and negatively related with depression, materialism, and envy (Froh, Emmons, Card, Bono, & Wilson, 2009)
• Students who practiced gratitude reported higher levels of satisfaction with school—feel good at school, eager to go to school, think they are learning a lot, find school interesting (Huebner, Drane, & Valois, 2000)

4. Desire to contribute to society:
• Gratitude in adolescents contributes to the “desire to give back to their neighborhood, community, and world” (Froh, Bono, Emmons, 2010)

5. Healthy relationships:
• Adolescents that expressed gratitude were more effective at communicating, cultivated positive social interactions, and satisfying and supportive relationships (Hess, 1970)
• In adults, gratitude is strongly related to healthy social and psychological functioning, helps build strong relationships (Emmons & McCollough, 2004)
• Gratitude related to quality of relationships, compassion, generosity, and empathy (McCollough et al, 2002; Wood et al., 2010)