Gratitude improves parents' well-being and family functioning

• Published in: Emotion (Washington, D.C.) Vol. 24; no. 2; p. 357
• Main Authors: Nelson-Coffey, S Katherine, Coffey, John K
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States 01.03.2024
• Subjects: Child Development; Emotions; Happiness; Humans; Parent-Child Relations; Parents
• ISSN: 1931-1516
• DOI: 10.1037/emo0001283

Parents are inundated with suggestions to improve their relationships with their children and promote child development, but improving caregiver well-being is often overlooked despite being considered one of the most important methods to promote healthy child development. Drawing on the robust literature on the emotional and relationship benefits of gratitude, we present two studies demonstrating the advantages of gratitude for parents' well-being and family functioning. First, in a 7-day daily experience study conducted in 2018 ( = 270), daily gratitude predicted greater well-being and family functioning, controlling for daily happiness, coder-rated care difficulty, and sociodemographics. Second, in a short-term longitudinal experiment conducted in 2018 ( = 619), participants were randomly assigned to write a gratitude letter or to complete a control activity. In this study, expressing gratitude predicted greater well-being and family functioning 1 week later via increases in positive emotions. Notably, across both studies neither felt nor expressed gratitude referred to one's children; however, the results of our studies suggest that gratitude in general improves parent-child relationships and family well-being. This work provides insights regarding ways to improve parents' well-being without requiring greater effort, energy, or attention to one's children, and it suggests that promoting parents' gratitude in general may benefit the entire family. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).