Measuring Gratitude in Youth: Assessing the Psychometric Properties of Adult Gratitude Scales in Children and Adolescents Jeffrey J. Froh Hofstra University Jinyan Fan Auburn University Robert A. Emmons University of California, Davis Giacomo Bono California State University, Dominguez Hills E. Scott Huebner University of South Carolina Philip Watkins Eastern Washington University Before the developmental trajectory, outcomes, and related interventions of gratitude can be accurately and confidently studied among the youth, researchers must ensure that they have psychometrically sound measures of gratitude that are suitable for this population. Thus, considering that no known scales were specifically designed to measure gratitude in youth, this study aimed to answer an important question: Are the existing gratitude scales used with adults valid for use with youth? The present study is an empirical investigation, based on a large youth sample (N 1,405) with ages ranging from 10 to 19 years old, of the psychometric properties of scores of the Gratitude Questionnaire-6 (GQ-6 M. E. McCullough, R. A. Emmons, & J.-A. Tsang, 2002), the Gratitude Adjective Checklist (GAC M. E. McCullough, R. A. Emmons, & J.-A. Tsang, 2002), and the Gratitude Resentment and Appreciation Test (GRAT)-short form (M. Thomas & P. Watkins, 2003). Single-group and multiple-group confirmatory factor analyses indicated that the factor structures of these gratitude scales resemble those found with adults and were invariant across age groups. Scores of all three gratitude scales revealed acceptable internal consistency estimates (i.e., .70) across age groups. Results showed that whereas scores of all three gratitude scales were positively correlated with each other for 14- to 19-year-olds, GRAT-short form scores tended to display relatively low correlations with scores of the other two measures for younger children (10���13 years old). Furthermore, the nomological network analysis showed that scores of all three gratitude scales were positively correlated with positive affect and life satisfaction scores across the age groups. The relationships with negative affect and depression scores, however, seemed dependent on the child���s age. Pending results from subsequent research recommendations for researchers interested in studying gratitude in youth are offered. Keywords: gratitude, scale, assessment, children, adolescents There has been a recent surge of gratitude research with adults (Emmons, 2007 Emmons & McCullough, 2004) however, research has just begun to explore gratitude in youth (Bono & Froh, 2009 Froh & Bono, 2008 Froh, Miller, & Snyder, 2007). Because gratitude focuses people���s attention on their own welfare and others���, its cul- tivation early in life may provide a bedrock for many positive devel- opmental outcomes. Nevertheless, prior to accurate and confident study of its developmental trajectory, outcomes, and related interven- tions, researchers require psychometrically sound measures of grati- tude that are suitable for children and adolescents. Thus, considering that no known scales were specifically designed to measure gratitude in youth, we aimed to answer an important question in the present study: Are the existing gratitude scales used with adults valid in research with youth? The Psychology of Gratitude Gratitude is the appreciation experienced by individuals when somebody does something kind or helpful for them. It has been defined more specifically as ���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 This article was published Online First March 28, 2011. Jeffrey J. Froh, Department of Psychology, Hofstra University Jinyan Fan, Department of Psychology, Auburn University Robert A. Emmons, Depart- ment of Psychology, University of California, Davis Giacomo Bono, Depart- ment of Psychology, California State University, Dominguez Hills E. Scott Huebner, Department of Psychology, University of South Carolina Philip Watkins, Department of Psychology, Eastern Washington University. Jeffrey J. Froh and Jinyan Fan contributed equally to this manuscript. Gratitude is extended to Sheldon Karnilow, Patrick Harrigan, William Sefick, Andrew Greene, Sy Roth, James LoFrese, Chris Alexander, and all of the teachers, parents, and students for their support with data collection. Thanks go to Melissa Ubertini, Pascual Chen, Stephanie Snyder, Christine White, Kate Caputo, Lisa Wajsblat, Ashley Bartner, Al-Jameela Youssef, Vincent Conte, Loren Packer-Hopke, Lindsay Laufer, Owen Graham, and Terrance Wakely for their assistance with data collection. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Jeffrey J. Froh, Hofstra University, Department of Psychology, 210 Hauser Hall, Hempstead, New York, 11549. E-mail: Jeffrey.Froh@hofstra.edu Psychological Assessment �� 2011 American Psychological Association 2011, Vol. 23, No. 2, 311���324 1040-3590/11/$12.00 DOI: 10.1037/a0021590 311

natural beauty��� (Emmons, 2004, p. 554). Gratitude has been con- ceptualized as an emotional trait, mood, or emotion (McCullough, Emmons, & Tsang, 2002). Trait gratitude, or the disposition to- ward gratitude, is a ���life orientation toward noticing and appreci- ating the positive in life��� (Wood, Froh, & Geraghty, 2010, p. 891). As a moral emotion, the experience and expression of gratitude promotes beneficial exchanges and relationships between people and the welfare of society at large (Haidt, 2003)���a view that has long been shared by religions and cultures across the globe (Emm- ons & Crumpler, 2000). Specifically, McCullough, Kilpatrick, Emmons, and Larson (2001) proposed that gratitude serves three moral functions. It serves as a moral barometer for beneficiaries by signaling the value of the relationship with the benefactor for the gift bestowed upon them as a moral reinforcer by increasing the probability that the benefactor will bestow gifts again in the future and as a moral motive by spurring beneficiaries to respond prosocially toward the benefactor or toward other people. McCullough et al. adduced evidence from an array of studies in personality, developmental, social, and evolutionary psychology in support of the barometer and reinforcer functions. Recent exper- iments have also produced convincing evidence in support of the moral motive function (Bartlett & DeSteno, 2006 Tsang, 2006, 2007). Considered an important virtue for psychological and social functioning, gratitude is an emotion that instills a sense of meaning and connection to other people, communities, nature, or God (Emmons, 2004). Investigating gratitude in youth is important for several reasons. First is because of its association with positive emotional func- tioning. Gratitude has been linked causally with positive affect (Emmons & McCullough, 2003 Froh, Kashdan, Ozimkowski, & Miller, 2009). Positive affect, in terms of happiness, is related to superior life outcomes across a wide variety of domains (Lyu- bomirsky, King, & Diener, 2005). The regular experience of positive emotions can make people healthier and more resilient, fueling an upward spiral of optimal functioning, well-being, and development (Fredrickson, 2001 Fredrickson & Joiner, 2002). Gratitude, like other positive emotions, broadens problem-solving strategies (Fredrickson & Branigan, 2005) and can undo the after- effects of negative emotions (Fredrickson, Mancuso, Branigan, & Tugae, 2000). Indeed, one reason resilient people bounce back from negative life events better is that they experience positive emotions such as gratitude regularly in response to stressful situ- ations (Tugade & Fredrickson, 2004). Given its relationship to positive affect, gratitude may be used to engage this upward spiral (Fredrickson, 2004). For example, after compassion, gratitude was the second most common emotion experienced following the Sep- tember 11 attacks in 2001 (9/11). Such effects may occur with youth, too. For example, in an archival study of newspaper ac- counts of things children were thankful for, themes of gratitude for basic human needs (e.g., family, friends, and teachers) were found to increase after 9/11 (Gordon, Musher-Eizenman, Holub, & Dal- rymple, 2004). Thus, gratitude appears to be a powerful resilience factor that may help people to cope with disaster (Fredrickson, Tugade, Waugh, & Larkin, 2003). It therefore is important for psychologists to measure and study its development in youth. Second, gratitude is related to a wide range of adaptive social outcomes, including quality of relationships, generosity, compas- sion, and empathy (McCullough et al., 2002 Wood et al., 2010). Social belonging is among the most essential human needs (Deci & Ryan, 2000). Caring ties can buffer people from adversity and pathology as well as enhance their health and well-being through- out life (Baumeister & Leary, 1995 House, Landis, & Umberson, 1988). Research with adults overwhelmingly indicates that grati- tude is strongly related to healthy psychological and social func- tioning because it focuses people on self-improvement and helps them maintain and build strong, supportive social ties (Emmons & McCullough, 2004). Evidence consistent with these effects, but among youth populations, has only recently started to emerge. For instance, among early adolescents, gratitude was found to be negatively related with physical symptoms and positively related with positive affect perceptions of peer and familial social sup- port optimism providing emotional support and satisfaction with school, family, community, friends, and self (Froh, Yurkewicz, & Kashdan, 2009) as well as life overall (Park & Peterson, 2006). Among late adolescents, gratitude was positively related with academic achievement, absorption in activities, and social integra- tion (or the motivation to connect and contribute to one���s society/ community), and negatively related with envy and materialism (Froh, Emmons, Card, Bono, & Wilson, 2011). The most convinc- ing evidence that gratitude can improve youth well-being comes from intervention studies (e.g., Froh et al., 2011 Froh, Kashdan, et al., 2009 Froh, Sefick, & Emmons, 2008). In one study (Froh, Kashdan, et al., 2009), children and adolescents low in positive affect who wrote and personally delivered a gratitude letter to a benefactor, compared with those who kept journals about daily events, reported greater gratitude and positive affect at posttreat- ment and greater positive affect at the 2-month follow-up. Thus, gratitude is related to important indicators of psychological and social functioning in youth as it is in adults. The aforementioned studies suggest advances in researchers��� understanding of gratitude in adolescence. Grateful adolescents appear to be happy adolescents, and the effects of gratitude inter- ventions with adolescents mirror those with adults (cf. Emmons & McCullough, 2003 Seligman, Steen, Park, & Peterson, 2005). As valuable as this research may be, psychologists must tread cau- tiously because the scales used in these studies were created for adults���not for youth. In other words, the validity of the research findings hinges on the assumption that these adult gratitude mea- sures can validly measure youth gratitude. This assumption has not been rigorously tested, and this is the primary purpose of our study. First, we discuss an important issue regarding the measure- ment of gratitude in youth and then review three existing adult gratitude scales. Next, we present an empirical study on the psy- chometric properties of scores of the three gratitude scales, based on a large youth sample ranging in age from 10 to 19 years old. 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 de- velopment 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 312 FROH ET AL.