THE ASSESSMENT OF GRATITUDE
Robert A. Emmons, Jeffrey Froh, and Rachel Rose
Since the first edition of this handbook, rapid progress has been made in the science of
gratitude, due in large part because of advances in measurement. In this chapter we describe
these recent developments in the measurement of gratitude across the life span. We emphasize
self-reported gratitude measures, since these have dominated research.
Efforts to develop measures of gratitude have been stepped up as accumulating research
demonstrates that gratitude is foundational to well-being and mental health throughout the life
span. From childhood to old age, a wide array of psychological, physical, and relational benefits
are associated with gratitude. Gratitude has been shown not only contribute to an increase in
happiness, health and other desirable life outcomes but also to a decrease in negative affect and
problematic functioning including in patients with neuromuscular disease, college students,
hypertensives, cancer patients, health care providers, and early adolescents (Cheng, Tsu, & Lam,
2015; Emmons & McCullough, 2003; Emmons & Stern, 2013; Froh, Sefick, & Emmons, 2008;
Otto, 2016; Virutamavongsa, 2016). Another study pinpointed gratitude as a protective factor
against PTSD symptoms (Israel-Cohen, Uzefovsky, Kashy-Rosenbaum, & Kaplan, 2015).
Gratitude differs considerably from other moral emotions such as empathy, sympathy,
guilt, and shame. While empathy and sympathy can be understood primarily as a response to the
distress of another person; and shame and guilt as responses to one’s inability to meet moral
standards, gratitude is the pleasant response of thankfulness to an outside agent after recognizing
benefits received (Ellsworth & Smith, 1988; Weiner, 1986). From an evolutionary perspective,
gratitude has been described to have evolved as an adaptive regulating mechanism for
exchanging costly benefits among relatives (i.e., reciprocal altruism) and as a ‘pay it forward’
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form of distributing benefit to someone other than the benefactor (or ‘upstream reciprocity’)
(McCullough, Kimeldorf, & Cohen, 2008; Nowak & Roch, 2007). Furthermore, as a trait,
gratitude is different from other positive traits. For example, trait gratitude is oriented toward
noticing positive outcomes in life, while optimism is oriented towards expecting positive future
outcomes (Wood, Froh, & Geraghty, 2010). Therefore, gratitude serves a distinctive function
within the pantheon of human emotional experience.
Facets of Gratitude
Based on Rosenberg’s (1998) hierarchical levels of affective experience, gratitude has
been identified as a trait, emotion, and mood. The grateful disposition can be defined as a stable
affective trait that would lower the threshold of experiencing gratitude (McCullough, Tsang, &
Emmons, 2004), or as a characteristic self-reinforcing pattern (Rusk, Vella-Brodrick, & Walters,
2015). As an emotion, gratitude can be understood as an acute, intense, and relatively brief
psychophysiological reaction to being the recipient of a benefit from another. Lastly, as a stable
mood, gratitude has also been identified to have a subtle, broad and longer duration impact on
consciousness (McCullough et al., 2004).
These various meanings overlap the distinctions made by Lambert, Graham and Fincham
(2009) between benefit triggered and generalized gratitude. They define the emotion that results
from an interpersonal transfer of a benefit from a beneficiary to a benefactor as being benefittriggered gratitude, or “grateful to” gratitude. The broader type of gratitude includes being
grateful for all sorts of gifts in life, not just for particular benefits conferred by specific others.
Generalized gratitude is the emotion or state resulting from an awareness and appreciation of that
which is valuable and meaningful to oneself. Lay conceptions of gratitude encompass both
meanings of the term as demonstrated in a series of studies (Lambert et al., 2009) in which they
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conclude that lay conceptions of gratitude are often broader than how the concept has been
defined in prior research (Gulliford, Birmingham, & Morgan, 2016).
Review of Research on Gratitude and Its Assessment
Gratitude has been measured in a multitude of ways and forms. These previous measures
of gratitude can be subsumed under the three categories of free-response, attributions, and trait
rating scales. In some studies, gratitude has been assessed as a dependent variable, a state whose
intensity is influenced by other variables, whereas in other studies, gratitude has been treated as
an independent variable that can influence various behavioral or cognitive-affective outcomes.
Gratitude has also been looked at as a mediator, influencing the relationship between two
variables.
Free Response
This category refers to research consisting of interviews or free response answers to
questions about gratitude. For example, Teigen (1997) had participants write about two instances
in which they felt grateful: one when they were grateful to someone specifically and another
where they were generally grateful, for instance, “grateful to life.” Russell and Paris (1994)
asked children to tell stories about protagonists who were feeling different emotions, including
one story where the person felt “very grateful.” Lambert, Graham, and Fincham (2009) asked
participants to write down characteristics that come to mind when they hear the word gratitude.
They derived 52 prototypical gratitude attributes from these free responses, which were then
rated for their centrality to gratitude by another group of respondents. Biondo (2012) utilized a
free-response method to elicit responses that were characteristic of natural and spontaneous
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gratitude, in contrast to resentment. Narrative accounts of grateful life experiences have also
been collected (Lambert et al., 2009).
Gratitude frequency is one facet that is amenable to free responses. Okamoto and
Robinson (1997) presented their participants with helping vignettes and asked them to write
down what they would say or do in response to someone helping them. The frequency of
participants writing that they would say “thank you” depended on characteristics of the helper
and the nature of the help (i.e. the level of imposition of the helper). The role of the helper,
benefactor, and the relationship between them has been explored in greater detail by Algoe,
Kurtz, and Hilaire (2016). Sommers and Kosmitzki (1988) gave participants a list of emotions
and asked them a number of questions using that list, including which emotions they experienced
regularly and which emotions they thought were most constructive. Individuals often listed
gratitude as one of the responses to these two questions. In addition, a variant of gratitude span
has been measured by the Gallup poll (1998), where researchers asked telephone interviewees to
list two or three things for which they felt grateful. Although participants were not asked to list
all the things they felt grateful for, this question tapped into the different types of benefits that
people might feel grateful about (e.g. health, job/career, children, just being alive).
Attributional Measures
Gratitude also has been measured indirectly through attributions and behaviors. In one
study, participants read and responded to scenarios depicting various helping events, in which
indicators of helpers having autonomous or controlled (introjected) motivations were embedded
(Weinstein, Dehaan, & Ryan, 2010). Autonomous attributions predicted more gratitude and other
positive recipient outcomes compared to controlled motivation, a finding consistent with a body
of evidence demonstrating the benefit-triggered gratitude increases with perceived intentionality
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and cost to the benefactor. In another study (Froh et al., 2011), middle school classrooms (of 811 year olds) were randomly assigned to an intervention that trained the appraisal of benefit
exchanges (i.e., social-cognitive determinants of gratitude) or to a control condition. Three
vignettes were created to measure the social-cognitive perceptions underlying gratitude (i.e.,
intent, cost, and benefit; Tesser et al. 1968; Wood et al. 2008). The vignettes depicted three
different helping situations in which the students were instructed to imagine that they were the
main character in the stories. Following each story, students were asked four questions. The
questions for each vignette were tailored to the respective benefactor (i.e., sister, friend, and
parent) and situation (i.e., help studying, lending cleats to play soccer, and sharing a computer),
and all three grateful cognitions across all three vignettes were measured. Using “sister” as an
example, the questions were the following: “How much did your sister help you on purpose?,”
which aims to measure intent; “How much did your sister give up to help you?,” which aims to
measure cost; and “How much did your sister (quizzing) you help you?,” which aims to measure
benefit. Finally, attempting to gather preliminary construct validity of the vignettes as measures
of grateful thinking, the last question for each vignette asked the student to rate how thankful
they would feel toward the benefactor. For this question, students rated their responses using a
5-point Likert scale. The scale ranged from (1) very slightly or not at all to (5) extremely. In this
sample, alphas for the benefit appraisal vignettes were .82 (pretest) and .86 (posttest). Alpha was
computed across vignettes combining dimensions.
Dispositional Measures of Gratitude
By far, trait measures are the most widely used means for assessing gratitude. Three selfreport measures of gratitude as a personality disposition have been constructed: the GRAT
(Gratitude, Resentment, Appreciation Test; Watkins, Grimm, & Hailu, 1998) the Gratitude
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Questionnaire (GQ-6; McCullough, Emmons, Tsang, 2002), and the Gratitude Adjective
Checklist (GAC, McCullough et al., 2002). These individual difference measures emphasize
both benefit-triggered gratitude and a generalized sense of gratitude. The GAC is the composite
of three affect adjectives (grateful, appreciative, and thankful) and has been used to assess both
state and trait indicators of grateful affect in repeated measures designs. The GAC can be used to
measure gratitude as an emotion, mood, or disposition depending on the timeframe specified in
the instructions. This measure evidenced strong psychometric properties in both early and late
adolescent samples (Froh et al., 2007).
The 44-item GRAT form measures three dimensions of gratitude: Resentment, simple
appreciation, and appreciation of others (Watkins, Woodward, Stone, & Kolts, 2003). Some
example items include “I basically feel like life has ripped me off,” “Sometimes I find myself
overwhelmed by the beauty of a musical piece,” and “I feel deeply appreciative for the things
that others have done for me in my life.” Scores on the GRAT correlate positively and
moderately with positive states and traits such as internal locus of control, intrinsic religiosity,
life satisfaction, and a memory bias in favor of positive life events (Watkins, Grimm, & Kolts,
2004). Moreover, GRAT scores correlate negatively and moderately with negative states and
traits such as depression, extrinsic religiosity, narcissism, and hostility (Watkins, Grimm, &
Kolts, 2004). The GRAT evidenced strong test-retest reliability, internal consistency, criterionrelated validity, and sensitivity in adult samples (Froh et al., 2007),
The GQ-6 measures dispositional gratitude as a generalized tendency to recognize and
emotionally respond with thankfulness, after attributing benefits received to an external moral
agent (Emmons, McCullough, & Tsang, 2003). Items reflect gratitude intensity (e.g., “I feel
thankful for what I have received in life”), gratitude frequency (e.g., “Long amounts of time can
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go by before I feel grateful to something or someone”), gratitude span (e.g., “I sometimes feel
grateful for the smallest things”), and gratitude density (e.g., “I am grateful to a wide variety of
people”). Each item is endorsed on a 7-point Likert-type scale (where 1 = strongly disagree and 7
= strongly agree).
McCullough et al. (2002) examined the validity of a one-factor solution for the six items
via structural equation models with maximum likelihood estimation. Using three different fit
indexes, the one-factor model provided an adequate fit to the data Table 1 presents a summary of
the descriptive statistics and acceptable internal consistencies of the GQ-6 across diverse
samples. Alpha reliabilities have ranged from .67 to .94. The GQ-6 has been successfully
validated across diverse populations such as the U.S. high-school youth, Taiwanese college
students, Taiwanese athletes, U. S. older adults, business school graduate students, and veterans
with post-traumatic stress disorder (Andersson, Giacalone, & Jurkiewicz, 2007; Chen, Chen,
Kee, & Tsai, 2008; Froh, Emmons, Card, Bono, & Wilson, 2010; Kashdan, Mishra, Breen, &
Froh, 2009; Kashdan, Uswatte, & Julian, 2006). A recent study done by Jans- Beken, Lataster,
Leontjevas, & Jacobs (2015), supports the validity of the GQ-6.
The grateful disposition has been found to be positively associated with personality traits
reflecting well-being and positive social functioning. For example, in terms of the Big-Five
personality domains, gratitude has been found to be strongly associated with extraversion,
openness, and agreeableness; and negatively associated with resentment/hostility, depression,
and vulnerability and materialistic attitudes and envy (McCullough, Emmons, & Tsang, 2002;
McCullough, Tsang, & Emmons, 2004; Wood, Joseph, & Maltby, 2008). Recent studies have
even highlighted a relationship between gratitude and other surprising factors such as biology,
sleep, and patience (Jacowska, Brown, Ronaldson, & Steptoe, 2016; Dickes, & DeSteno, 2016).
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At the facet level, gratitude has been found to be most strongly associated with warmth,
gregariousness, positive emotions, open actions, trust, altruism, tender-mindedness, and
prosocial traits such as empathy, forgiveness, and willingness to help others (McCullough et al.,
2002; Wood et al., 2008). Most importantly, the grateful disposition has been found to be
independent of the Big-Five and contributes uniquely to well-being (Saucier & Goldberg, 1998;
Wood et al., 2008; Lin, 2014) above and beyond general positive affect (Bartlett & DeSteno,
2006).
Aside from numerous studies measuring gratitude among U.S. populations, the GQ-6 has
increasingly been validated cross-culturally. It has been translated, adapted, and validated in
Hungarian (Tamas, Magdolna, & Judit, 2014), Polish (Kossakowska, & Kwiatek, 2014), and
Dutch (Jans-Beken et al., 2015), among others. Across two cross-sectional studies, Chen and Kee
(2008) examined the association between dispositional gratitude and well-being among
Taiwanese athletes. The GQ was translated into Taiwanese. In study 1, 169 adolescent athletes
(15- 18 years) were measured on the GQ-6 and other well-being measures. Dispositional
gratitude strongly predicted more satisfaction with life, team satisfaction, and negatively
predicted athlete burnout. After the GQ-6 was modified to orient gratitude in a sports setting
(e.g., one of the GQ items were modified as “I have so much in my entire sport experience or
endeavor to be thankful for”), sports-domain gratitude positively predicted team satisfaction and
inversely predicted athlete burnout.
The grateful disposition has also been extensively examined as a buffer against stress
(Wood, Joseph, & Linley, 2007; Fitch-Martin, 2016). In one of the initial attempts to understand
the stress buffering effects of gratitude, Vietnam War veterans with and without posttraumatic
stress disorder (PTSD) were examined for the effects of gratitude on well-being. In the PTSD
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group, though no differences were found for daily gratitude, dispositional gratitude significantly
predicted greater daily positive affect, percent of pleasant days, intrinsically motivated activity,
and self-esteem (Kashdan, Uswatte, & Julian, 2006). The link between gratitude and PTSD has
continued to be researched and expanded upon (Israel- Cohen et al., 2015, Van Dusen, Tiamiyu,
Kashdan, & Elhai, 2015; Vieselmeyer, Holguin, & Mezulis, 2016). As an extension of this line
of research, empirical attempts have been made to understand the link between dispositional
gratitude and distinct coping styles. Wood, Joseph, & Linley (2007) revealed that gratitude was
associated with more approach styles of coping such as seeking more social support, positive
interpretation, growth, active coping, and planning. Conversely, gratitude was negatively
associated with behavior disengagement, self-blame, substance-use, and denial. Across two
longitudinal studies, Wood, Maltby, Gillett, Linley, & Joseph (2008) examined the association
between dispositional gratitude, perceived social support, stress, and depression during a life
transition. Study 1 revealed that dispositional gratitude significantly contributed to the
development of social support during a life transition, reduced stress, and alleviated depression.
Subsequently, these findings were replicated in Study 2, and revealed that dispositional gratitude
contributed to well-being and social support beyond the Big-Five personality traits.
Inducing Gratitude: Gratitude Journaling and Related Inductions
While gratitude has been studied as trait, it has also been studied as an emotion-feeling
grateful and equivalent states (appreciation, thankfulness). State gratitude has been
experimentally activated through the self-guided exercise of journaling. In the first study
examining the benefits of experimentally induced grateful thoughts on psychological well being
in daily life, a gratitude induction was compared to a hassles and a neutral life events condition
(Emmons & McCullough, 2003). The cultivation of grateful affect through daily and weekly
9
journaling led to overall improved well being, including fewer health complaints, and a more
positive outlook toward life. Participants in the gratitude condition also reported more exercise,
and appraised their life more positively compared to participants in the hassles and neutral
conditions. The impact of gratitude interventions on positive affect was recently replicated in a
Spanish sample (Martínez-Martí, Avia, & Hernández-Lloreda, 2010). Results from another study
(Froh et al., 2012) on gratitude intervention in youth, indicated that children’s awareness of the
social cognitive appraisals in receiving help from another can be strengthened and that this
makes children more grateful and benefits their well-being. A weekly intervention obtained such
effects up to 5 months later. A daily intervention produced these effects immediately (2 days
later) and showed further that children expressed gratitude behaviorally more (i.e., wrote 80%
more thank you cards to their Parent Teacher Association) and that their teachers even observed
them to be happier.
In the past few years, a number of laboratory and research based intervention studies
have also been examining the positive impact of gratitude induced activities (e.g., the gratitude
visit, gratitude letter) on psychological well being, including happiness, depression, materialism
and relational satisfaction (Bono, Emmons, & McCullough, 2004; McCullough et al., 2004;
Seligman, Steen, Park, & Peterson; 2000, Watkins, 2000; Toepfer, Cichy, & Peters, 2012).
Extending the findings on personal well-being, there is empirical evidence now stating
that increasing short-term levels of gratitude promotes the formation and maintenance of
interpersonal relationships (Koo, Algoe, Wilson, & Gilbert, 2008; Mikulincer, Shaver, & Slav,
2006). For example, a recent daily diary study examined daily gratitude and indebtedness in
romantic relationships. Gratitude experienced as a result of the daily interactions between the
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romantic partners lead to increase in relationship connection, and satisfaction the following day
for both partners (Algoe, Gable, & Maisel, 2010; Algoe, & Zhaoyang, 2016). Experiencing
gratitude for the benefits derived from the romantic partner has strong implications for overall
well-being, improvements in closeness in the relationship, and reducing interpersonal stress.
Lambert and colleagues (Lambert, Clark, Durtschi, Fincham, & Graham, 2009; Lambert &
Fincham, 2010) found that participants randomly assigned to express gratitude to a friend twice a
week for 3 weeks reported more willingness to voice relationship concerns, had higher positive
regard for the friend, and perceived greater communal strength than those in control conditions.
Considering the importance of examining the uniqueness of gratitude, in our laboratory
we compared gratitude with two other psychological interventions. In a 14-day daily diary study,
participants were randomly assigned to one of four conditions—gratitude, forgiveness, hope, or
control. We found no major differences between the experimental conditions in terms of benefits
to well-being. However, we observed gender differences on the GAC most strongly in the
gratitude intervention condition. Women had higher levels of grateful emotions in the gratitude
condition indicating that women were more sensitive to the gratitude intervention. Maintaining a
gratitude diary has also been shown to enhance school belonging and promote well-being
(Diebel, Woodcock, Cooper, & Brignell, 2016).
Measuring Gratitude in Youth
Aside from several isolated studies that preceded current theorizing on gratitude (e.g.,
Baumgarten-Tramer, 1938; Becker & Smenner, 1986; Gleason & Weintraub, 1976; Russell &
Paris, 1994), the study of gratitude in youth is in its infancy (for reviews, see Bono & Froh,
2009). Generally speaking, the emerging evidence mirrors the positive benefits found with
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adults. For instance, early adolescents (ages 11-13) who were more grateful reported more
positive affect, optimism, social support from peer and family, and satisfaction with school,
family, community, friends, and self (Froh, Yurkewicz, & Kashdan, 2009), compared to their
less grateful counterparts. They also reported having fewer physical symptoms and giving more
emotional support. Among late adolescents (ages 14-19), those who were more grateful reported
greater life satisfaction, social integration, absorption in activities, and academic achievement
and less envy, depression, and materialism. Longitudinal evidence also indicates links to greater
psychological and social functioning up to 6 months later (Froh, Bono, & Emmons, 2010).
The most convincing evidence that gratitude can improve youth well-being comes from
intervention studies (Froh, Sefick, & Emmons, 2008, Froh et al., 2009; Froh et al., 2012). 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 our understanding of gratitude in youth.
Grateful youth appear to be happy youth, and the effects of gratitude interventions with children
and adolescents mirror those with adults. As valuable as this research may be, psychologists
must tread cautiously because the scales used in these studies were created for adults—not for
youth. In other words, the validity of the research findings hinges upon the assumption that these
adult gratitude measures can validly measure youth gratitude.
Indeed, a major obstacle to gratitude research with youth is that no scale currently exists
that was specifically designed to measure a grateful disposition that is still forming in
development. Although psychologists may be tempted to use the adult scales previously
discussed because they are readily accessible measures (as researchers have been doing for the
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past 3 years), caution should be used because the experience and expression of gratitude is
different in adults than in children and adolescents (Bono & Froh, 2009).
The difficulty with evaluating gratitude in youth is further compounded by the
uncertainty surrounding its developmental trajectory (Froh, Miller, & Snyder, 2007). Some
scholars submit that the experience of gratitude increases as children mature (BaumgartnerTramer, 1938; Graham, 1988). That is, older children report experiencing and expressing more
gratitude compared to younger children. Therefore, measuring gratitude in infancy and early
childhood may prove futile if gratitude emerges in middle childhood. But until a youth gratitude
scale is created, one that is sensitive to the cognitive and emotional development of children and
adolescents, psychologists are left with a choice to either not study gratitude or use the existing
scales. Luckily for youth and those interested in studying gratitude on this population, a recent
study was conducted on the psychometric properties of adult gratitude scales in children and
adolescents. This study will be discussed in detail below because it is the most comprehensive
study on assessing gratitude in youth known to date.
Can We Use Adult Gratitude Scales With Youth?
Before the developmental trajectory, outcomes, and related interventions of gratitude can
be accurately and confidently studied among youth, researchers must ensure that they have
psychometrically sound measures of gratitude that are suitable for this population. Thus, Froh
and colleagues (in press) asked an important question: Are the existing gratitude scales used with
adults valid for use with youth? Based on a large youth sample (N = 1,405) with ages ranging
from 10 to 19 years old, they examined the psychometric properties of scores of the Gratitude
Questionnaire-6 (GQ-6), the Gratitude Adjective Checklist (GAC), and the Gratitude Resentment
and Appreciation Test (GRAT)-short form. Single-group and multiple-group confirmatory factor
13
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
while scores of all three gratitude scales were positively correlated with each other for 14-19
year olds, GRAT-short form scores tended to display relatively low correlations (i.e., rs .20-.35)
with scores of the other two measures for younger children (10-13 year olds). Further, 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.
Based on these results, Froh et al. (in press) offer several recommendations for those
interested in studying gratitude in children and adolescents. First, the results suggest that the GQ6, GAC, and GRAT-short form can be used with 14-19 year olds, with one small exception: the
GAC demonstrated lower correlations with negative affect; thus, caution should be used when
using the GAC with this age group. Second, psychologists interested in using the GQ-6 to
measure gratitude in youth should consider excluding item 6 (“Long amounts of time can go by
before I feel grateful to something or someone”) considering its low factor loading (0.21 in their
youth sample), and some youth reporting it difficult to understand and abstract. Third,
psychologists should not use the GRAT-short form with 10-13 year olds. While the GQ-6 and
GAC could be used with this age group, the results suggest that the GQ-6 is the more
psychometrically sound scale. Nonetheless, they recommend that researchers attempting to
measure gratitude in 10-13 year olds should probably use both the GQ-6 and GAC, looking for
convergent findings.
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Emphasizing gratitude and building up positive anticipations should help youth sharpen
goals and plans that directly augment their welfare and help coordinate efforts to meaningfully
engage and educate them across the home, school, and community environments (Damon, 2008).
If a comprehensive mission for schools is to turn youth into psychologically well,
knowledgeable, responsible, socially skilled, physically healthy, caring and contributing citizens
(Greenberg et al., 2003), then fostering gratitude in youth may be an essential aim. Pursuit of this
ambitious mission, however, requires that researchers and school professionals first be confident
in their assessments of gratitude in children and adolescents. This study provides initial support
for the use of extant gratitude measures, with some exceptions, for research purposes.
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Table 1.
Summary of Means, Standard Deviations, and Internal Consistencies for the GQ-6 Across Studies
Study
N
Sample
Alpha
M
SD
Anderson, Giacalone, &
603
Business school
.67
38.50
3.67
Jurkiewicz (2007)
graduate students
Breen, Kashdan, Lenser, &
140
US college students
.91
35.62
5.25
Fincham (2010)
Chen, Chen, Kee, & Tsai
608
Taiwanese college
.80
28.55
5.25
(2008)
students
Chen & Kee (2008)- Study 1
169
Taiwanese senior
.80
28.68
4.50
high school athletes
Chen & Kee (2008)- Study 2
265
Taiwanese senior
.78
27.54
4.56
high school athletes
Froh, Emmons, Card, Bono, & 1,035 US High-school
.76
33.17
5.43
Wilson (2010)
students (14-19
years)
Froh, Fan, Emmons, Bono,
1,405 US High-school
.76 to .85 28.08 to 4.32 to
Huebner, & Watkins (in press)
students (10-19
30.44
5.11
years)
Kashdan & Breen (2007)
144
US college students
.77
36.68
5.13
Kashdan, Mishra, Breen, &
214
US college students
36.22
4.58
Froh, (2009)- Study 2a
(Female)
US college students
34.13
7.11
(Male)
.94
Kashdan, et al. (2009)- Study
76
Older adults (Female)
36.98
4.75
2b
Older adults (Male)
35.76
4.05
Kashdan, et al. (2009)- Study 3 190
US college students
36.80
5.39
(Female)
.93
US college students
34.83
5.52
(Male)
Kashdan, Uswatte, & Julian
75
PTSD group
22.1
9.4
(2006)
.86
Non-PTSD group
33.7
7.0
McCullough, Emmons, &
238
US college students
35.52
5.28
Tsang (2002)- Study 1
McCullough, et al. (2002)1,228 Adult volunteers
.82
36.9
4.92
Study 2
(age 18-75)
McCullough, et al. (2002)156
US college students
34.92
5.16
Study 3
McCullough, Tsang, &
96
Adult volunteers
35.58
5.76
Emmons (2004)- Study 1
(age 22-77)
.80 to.83
McCullough, et al. (2004)112
US college students
37.86
3.90
Study 2
Strelan (2007)
275
Australian college
.77
34.35
5.03
22
Wood, Maltby, Gillett, Linley,
& Joseph (2008)-Study 1
156
Wood, et al. (2008)-Study 2
87
students
British college
students
Not
reported
British college
students
Not
reported
28.97
(T1)
29.57
(T2)
35.13
8.26
(T1)
8.71
(T2)
4.40
Below is the GQ-6 form
The Gratitude Questionnaire-Six Item Form (GQ-6)
By Michael E. McCullough, Ph.D., Robert A. Emmons, Ph.D., Jo-Ann Tsang, Ph.D.
Using the scale below as a guide, write a number beside each statement to indicate how much
you agree with it.
1 = strongly disagree
2 = disagree
3 = slightly disagree
4 = neutral
5 = slightly agree
6 = agree
7 = strongly agree
____1. I have so much in life to be thankful for.
____2. If I had to list everything that I felt grateful for, it would be a very long list.
____3. When I look at the world, I don’t see much to be grateful for.*
____4. I am grateful to a wide variety of people.
____5. As I get older I find myself more able to appreciate the people, events, and situations
that have been part of my life history.
____6. Long amounts of time can go by before I feel grateful to something or someone.*
* Items 3 and 6 are reverse-scored.
Scoring Instructions:
1. Add up your scores for items 1, 2, 4, and 5.
2. Reverse your scores for items 3 and 6. That is, if you scored a "7," give yourself a "1," if you scored a
"6," give yourself a "2," etc.
3. Add the reversed scores for items 3 and 6 to the total from Step 1. This is your total GQ-6 score. This
number should be between 6 and 42.
23