What good is gratitude to students?
As an immigrant who had always gravitated towards adults who personally cared about my development, gratitude seemed particularly valuable to me and to the topic of supporting youth achievement. In 2007, Michael Furlong at UC Santa Barbara invited me to write a chapter on the potential of gratitude in school. Research on gratitude in youth was just emerging, mainly being done by a psychologist at Hofstra University by the name of Jeffrey Froh. Jeff and I wrote two chapters about gratitude, and as we embarked on more research together, we sought a grant to support our work. In 2011, thanks to funding from the John Templeton Foundation, the Youth Gratitude Project (YGP) was born. We’re working with hundreds of students and educators to understand how to measure and cultivate gratitude in schools and at home. Today, I’m often asked, “What’s the secret to instilling gratitude in kids?” This question is tough to answer in a few sentences because gratitude is a complex social behavior that we must personalize and work at regularly to grow (just like nutritional or exercise habits that last). It will emerge spontaneously, in situations like the one I faced. But can we cultivate gratitude and its benefits in our daily lives? The truth is that the science of gratitude is just starting out—and there’s a lot we still don’t know. Here’s an overview of what we’ve discovered about kids and thankfulness, and the questions we’re still trying to answer.
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