The Relations Among Family Functioning, Class Environment, and Gratitude in Chinese Elementary School Students
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The Relations Among Family Functioning, Class Environment, and Gratitude in Chinese Elementary School Students Yu Bai1 • Leili Jin2
Published online: 5 February 2016 De La Salle University 2016
Abstract Gratitude is a key construct in positive psychology. Previous studies seldom examined the salient contextual correlates of gratitude in early adolescence in non-Western society. This study examined the relations among family functioning, class environment, and gratitude in a sample of 202 Chinese elementary school students. The results showed that family cohesion was positively correlated with gratitude toward parents, helpers, and adversity. Family adaptability had a positive correlation with gratitude toward life and a sense of abundance in life. Meanwhile, relationships with classmates were significantly and positively correlated with gratitude toward helpers, adversity, and life, whereas learning burden was negatively correlated with a sense of abundance in life. The theoretical and practical implications are discussed. Keywords Gratitude Family adaptability and cohesion Class environment Elementary school student China
Introduction With the advent of the positive psychology movement, gratitude has become a hot research topic in recent decades (Froh and Bono 2014). It has been found to relate to & Yu Bai [email protected] Leili Jin [email protected] 1
Tsinghua-Rocfly Academy of Education, Institute of Education, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China
2
The Career Center, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China
psychopathology, adaptive personality characteristics, health, subjective and eudemonic well-being, positive relationships, and humanistically adaptive functioning (see Wood et al. 2010, for a review). However, the contextual correlates of gratitude remain unexplored, which may limit the ability of educators to develop various effective interventions to foster gratitude development. In particular, identifying the factors influencing gratitude development is meaningful for children, because early adolescence (ages 10–14) may be a key period when individuals begin to understand gratitude (Froh et al. 2010) and develop the ability to appreciate intentional acts of kindness from others. The present study aimed to address this research gap by examining the relationships of environmental factors (i.e., family functioning and class environment) with dispositional gratitude among Chinese primary school students. Gratitude Gratitude can be defined as an individual’s attitude to acknowledge good things in life and to recognize that those good things are deal to sources external to the self (Emmons, 2007). Individuals high in gratitude have a life orientation toward noticing and appreciating the positive (Wood et al. 2010) as well as experiencing positive emotion by the awareness that the positives are provided (at least partly) by other persons or impersonal sources (Emmons and McCullough 2003). Confucianism treats gratitude as one of the fundamental human virtues contributing to a wel
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