Why the Reasons That Parents Give for Socializing Gratitude in Their Children Matter (2016)

Undergraduate: Olivia LaSpina-Williams

Faculty Advisor: Andrea Hussong
Department: Psychology & Neuroscience

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Gratitude in adults is associated with a range of positive outcomes (e.g., lower psychopathology, higher well-being). However, little research has examined gratitude in children, and no research has explored the ways that parents socialize gratitude in young children. I examined parents' reasons for gratitude socialization, parents' socialization behaviors, and children's gratitude behaviors. Parents (n=101) completed a baseline survey in which they reported their reasons for gratitude socialization and seven-days of online diaries about their gratitude socialization behaviors and their children's gratitude-related behaviors. Structural equation modeling was used to examine if parents' reasons for gratitude socialization (specifically morally-motivated vs. social conformity reasons) directly predicted children's gratitude behaviors, or if this association was mediated by parents' gratitude socialization behaviors. Results suggest that parents who socialize gratitude for social conformity reasons (e.g., to teach children social norms and manners) have children who express significantly lower levels of gratitude; there was no direct effect of morally-motivated reasons for gratitude socialization (e.g., to teach social responsibility) on children's gratitude behaviors. Parents who used more morally-motivated reasons for socialization engaged in significantly more gratitude socialization behaviors, and these parents had children who engaged in more gratitude-related behaviors.