A growing body of research suggests that maintaining an attitude of gratitude can improve psychological, emotional and physical well-being.
Adults who frequently feel grateful have more energy, more optimism, more social connections and more happiness than those who do not, according to studies conducted over the past decade. They earn more money, sleep more soundly, exercise more regularly and have greater resistance to viral infections.
Researchers found that gratitude brings similar benefits in children and adolescents.
Kids who feel and act grateful tend to be less materialistic, get better grades, set higher goals, complain of fewer headaches and stomach aches and feel more satisfied with their friends, families and schools than those who don’t, studies show.
Philosophers as far back as the ancient Greeks and Romans cited gratitude as an indispensable human virtue, but social scientists, such as Robert Emmons, a professor of psychology at the University of California-Davis and a pioneer in gratitude research, and Jeffrey J. Froh, an assistant professor of psychology at Hofstra University in Hempstead, N.Y.
The research is part of the “positive psychology” movement, which focuses on developing strengths rather than alleviating disorders.
Cultivating gratitude is also a form of cognitive-behavioral therapy, which holds that changing peoples’ thought patterns can dramatically affect their moods.
Much of the research on gratitude has looked at associations, not cause-and-effect relationships; it’s possible that people who are happy, healthy and successful simply have more to be grateful for. But in a landmark study in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology in 2003, Dr. Emmons and University of Miami psychologist Michael McCullough showed that counting blessings can actually make people feel better.
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